Brentford international Kevin Schade (21) has parted ways with his long-time advisor Maik Barthel after the latter made sexist comments about Union Berlin’s assistant coach Marie-Louise Eta. Barthel has now spoken out about the matter
“First of all, I would like to emphasize that my tweet about Union Berlin last week was unfortunately a total failure. It was never my aim to make Ms. Eta the focus of my message or to discredit her. I am aware that my inappropriate choice of words made it come across that way. I’m sorry about that,” said Barthel in an interview with kicker, explaining: “My criticism was aimed solely at Union Berlin and what I saw as a misguided transfer policy that upset a previously functioning team hierarchy.”
After Union temporarily promoted Eta to become the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history, former Lewandowski advisor Barthel commented on X, formerly Twitter, last week: “An assistant coach has to be in the team’s dressing room sometimes? Please don’t expose German soccer to ridicule. It’s enough that the team hierarchy has been completely destroyed with the transfers. There’s no need for any other stories right now.”
The post was subsequently sharply criticized. Barthel then deleted it and wrote instead: “I have to rephrase it. Making a female assistant coach an issue will not help 1. FC Union Berlin to put the destroyed team hierarchy back in order. “
Statements result in separation with Schade
As for the motives behind his public statements, Barthel now explains: “It seemed to me that Union Berlin wanted to use the fact that Ms. Eta is now the first female assistant coach in the men’s Bundesliga to generate good press and distract attention from their own mistakes and problems.” Union president Dirk Zingler, however, had directly stated that Eta is co-coach of U19 coach Marco Grote solely due to her qualifications and was therefore promoted together with the interim coach.
With regard to Eta, Barthel said: “I have nothing at all against women in positions of responsibility in men’s soccer, I was also the advisor to former national team player Dzsenifer Marozsan for a while and wish Ms. Eta the greatest possible success in her role.” However, Barthel had already attracted attention in the past with negative comments about women on the short messaging service X.
As Barthel has inappropriately mixed his criticism of Union’s transfer policy with Eta’s personnel, he will have to live with the harsh and justified criticism of his comments. Professionally, this has put him at a considerable disadvantage, as Schade, his most valuable client to date, has ended the long-term collaboration with a clear statement
Barthel says: “We were able to accompany Kevin Schade from the U15s at Energie Cottbus to national player. That makes us very proud as a company. I very much regret that my inappropriate, unsuccessful public comment has led to the end of our collaboration. We have spoken to each other and I naturally accept and respect Kevin’s decision and wish him all the best in his career.”
Barthel is the owner of “Eurosports Management GmbH”, which represents the U-21 national team player Maximilian Beier, among others. It is not yet publicly known whether Schade, who has played in three senior international matches this year and is currently undergoing part of his rehabilitation in Munich following adductor surgery, has a new advisor.
