Nick Woltemade
That’s why it becomes Germany’s key for the World Cup
November 13, 2025 – 10:46 a.mReading time: 3 minutes
Football Germany is blessed with a lot, but not with an extensive selection of center forwards. In this respect, the good start for Nick Woltemade in England should also give national coach Julian Nagelsmann great hope.
Woltemade did not leave VfB Stuttgart completely quietly in the summer. But all parties involved are probably already over the minor summer drama. Thanks to Bilal El Khannouss and others, Stuttgart can continue to compete for the European places in the Bundesliga. Newcastle United have secured a top attacker and replacement for Alexander Isak. And Woltemade? Two and a half years after he was still active for SV Elversberg in the 3rd division, he is well on his way to becoming a well-established name in the Premier League.
The fact that the “Magpies” are currently only 14th in the top English league is certainly not due to Woltemade. He has already scored six goals in 14 competitive games – or to put it another way: Woltemade scores every 163 minutes. The question of whether the transfer fee of 75 million euros was justified or whether Newcastle were just acting like “idiots”, as Karl-Heinz Rummenigge put it, has been brushed aside. Of course, this also raises hopes in this country. A few months ago Woltemade was the big star of the U21. Now maybe also for the senior national team?
The most important development in terms of Woltemade’s player profile concerns his clear integration as a center forward for Newcastle. Before his move, he was often the second striker or in the attacking midfield. It seems as if Woltemade works particularly well when he has the game in front of him and can act on the ball himself.
In Newcastle, however, local head coach Eddie Howe offers him as a central striker in a 4-3-3. He is flanked by classic wing attackers such as Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon. In this respect, Woltemade is expected to sink the ball in the middle more than ever before. He has already worked on his header strength, which was not automatic despite his body length of almost two meters. Fittingly, he scored his first international goal with a header against Northern Ireland in October. “I train this two to three times a week. Balls are passed to me, which I then have to put into the goal with good technique,” the 23-year-old told RTL/ntv about his header training.
Nevertheless, Woltemade is still not a classic center forward, although on paper he is supposed to be one in a 4-3-3. All you need to do is compare the heatmaps of your last game in the Stuttgart jersey and the most recent game for Newcastle. There are no drastic differences in its radius of action there.