Newcastle's Nick Woltemade conundrum: Why Magpies might consider selling £65m striker after just one season

Dubbed the 'two-metre Lionel Messi; at Stuttgart, Woltemade is revered for his hold-up play and deceptively quick feet. He became a household name in Germany after joining Stuttgart from Werder Bremen in August 2024, as he went on to score 17 goals in 33 appearances to help the club win the DFB-Pokal in his debut season. 

Woltemade went on to play a key role in the Germany Under-21s' run to the 2025 European Championship final, winning the Golden Boot with six goals in five games. He also made his debut for the senior national team in June, playing 61 minutes of Germany's 2-1 defeat to Portugal in the Nations League semi-finals. 

However, there were still plenty of eyebrows raised over his £65m price tag. Bayern legend and board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge even went so far as to suggest that Stuttgart had metaphorically pulled down Newcastle's pants, telling BR Sport: "I'll be honest: When this story with Woltemade and then the demand from Stuttgart came up, I, as well as Uli Hoeness, Herbert Hainer, Jan Dreesen, and Max Eberl (fellow Bayern board members), said, 'Folks, we're slowly getting to a level that I simply don't find acceptable anymore. We shouldn't fulfill every demand to make someone happy, especially the financiers at Stuttgart'.

"I can only congratulate those in Stuttgart for finding - I'll use quotation marks here - an 'idiot' who paid that much money. Because we certainly wouldn't have done that in Munich."

Rummenigge's words were initially written off as bitter as Woltemade was able to hit the ground running in the famous black and white of Newcastle. He scored five goals in his first six starts, and joined Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand as only the third Newcastle player to ever find the net in each of their opening three games at St James' Park. 

The 6'6" striker earned special praise from Howe after Newcastle's 4-0 rout of Union Saint-Gilloise on matchday two of the Champions League after opening the scoring and impressing as a target man.

"He performed really well. His link up play is such a big part of what he does and it was excellent today. His potential is high," Howe aid. "There are certain things that we want to get more from him. His standout qualities are his technical ability and his knack for scoring goals, which is great thing to have. And of course his height and his presence. It’s an exciting start for him. Most importantly, he’s willing. He wants to do the work and he wants to improve. There is more to come."

At that stage, no one at Newcastle was pining too much for Isak. Woltemade also nailed down a spot in Germany's starting XI during World Cup qualifying, scoring four goals across the October and November international breaks, leaving Julian Nagelsmann equally pleased.

"His development has been very positive. Moving to another country, where a different style of football is played, is never entirely easy," said the Germany boss. "He has already scored a few times, feels comfortable in the city, and I think the overall situation feels great for both him and us."

Unfortunately, Woltemade couldn't sustain his early form for Newcastle, notching only three goals in their final 13 Premier League games of 2025. He also suffered the embarrassment of scoring an own goal in the first Tyne-Wear derby in the Premier League since 2016, gifting Sunderland a 1-0 victory at the Stadium of Light.

In the opening moments of the second half, Nordi Mukiele delivered a teasing cross from the right flank and Woltemade threw himself at the ball to try and head away from danger. Unfortunately, he got his timing all wrong, and diverted it past helpless Newcastle goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale. Malick Thiaw was also at fault for not giving Woltemade a shout, because he was better positioned to clear just behind his Germany team-mate, but it was a bizarre mistake considering no Sunderland players were putting any pressure on him.

Shearer, however, was more concerned about Woltemade's overall performance than that calamitous moment.

"Technically, he is very good, ball at his feet, he is very good, albeit he wasn't on Sunday. But he does pose a problem for Newcastle because he can't press," the Magpies icon said on the Rest is Football podcast. "We were sat back in a 4-5-1 and had no pressure on the ball, nothing. He hasn't got great energy, he is not quick. He has other strengths that he brings, but everything about Newcastle's success [under Howe] hasn't been about that. It's been about high energy and high press, and he can't do that. It's one of the reasons why Newcastle have struggled away from home."

Indeed, the result left Newcastle languishing in 12th in the table in mid-December, four points behind Sunderland and a whopping 14 behind leaders Arsenal. The euphoria of last year's Carabao Cup triumph and fifth-placed Premier League finish had given way to frustration among a fanbase that had seen the team spectacularly fail to kick onto the next level, and much of the scrutiny fell on Woltemade due to his price tag.

Still, he briefly silenced some of his critics in the Magpies' next game, netting both goals in a thrilling 2-2 draw against Chelsea. Relief poured out of the former Werder Bremen frontman after the final whistle, as he told reporters: "I had to deal with [the own goal]. In football, this can happen, it is part of the game. Now I’ve scored two goals, last week I scored an own goal and was the bad guy. I want to keep going, you saw that in my reaction; I was happy with the fans’ reaction, it is not normal that they respond like this. 

"I wanted to score the goals and say thank you. You saw I had confidence today, part of the confidence was because I knew the fans were behind me. My Instagram was full of messages. I think you saw today, if you are good with a player, you’ll get good back. I feel really good here." 

This did not turn out to be a springboard performance, though. Woltemade has since gone 12 league matches without a goal, and is no longer guaranteed a spot in Howe's line up.

That's despite the struggles of Wissa, who has just three goals to his name in all competitions since making his long-awaited debut for Newcastle in December. Howe has only started the ex-Brentford star eight times; surprisingly, it has instead been Anthony Gordon to emerge as the biggest threat to Woltemade's position.

Howe has been experimenting on and off with Woltemade in a midfield role and Gordon leading the line, with generally positive results. Newcastle have moved up to ninth in the Premier League, back in sight of the European places, while they are also in with a chance of reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, having drawn the first leg of their round of 16 tie against Barcelona 1-1 on home soil. 

"Nick was always in our thoughts as very much a deep-lying player, a deep-lying number nine. All his best work came from starting higher and coming lower," Howe has said when explaining the change for Woltemade. "Now, just starting lower and staying in the middle line, I don’t think is a great change. I’ve been very impressed with him."

This has not been a repeat of the Joelinton success story, though. Woltemade is never going to be a natural fit in a hybrid No.8 slot, as Newcastle learned last week in their 3-1 defeat to Manchester City in the fifth round of the FA Cup. He managed just 28 touches, nine accurate passes and two successful tackles before being hooked late on, bullied into near-anonymity by City's midfield trio of Nico O'Reilly, Tijjani Reijinders and Nico Gonzalez.

Woltemade has the skillset to sit behind the striker, but Howe's 4-3-3 set-up doesn't allow for that, and he's still been too ponderous on and off the ball as a No.9, which is no doubt why William Osula played upfront ahead of him against Barcelona while Gordon was battling illness. Whatever Howe says in front of the media, it's obvious that he doesn't yet fully trust Woltemade.

According to The Telegraph, Newcastle believe that Woltemade can still become their unrivalled main centre-forward after a full pre-season at the club, and he has been given two simple objectives: Move the ball quicker and use his physicality to get on the end of more crosses and set-pieces. There will surely be a temptation to look at other options if he doesn't start showing signs of improvement soon, though. 

It's no exaggeration to say that this week could go a long way to deciding his future. The Magpies first travel to Barca for their crunch Champions League showdown, with Atletico Madrid likely awaiting in the quarter-finals if they can pull off an upset at Spotify Camp Nou, and focus will then turn to a return derby against Sunderland in the league. If Woltemade can shine in Catalunya and redeem himself against Newcastle's fiercest rivals, his outlook could change. He will have to significantly up his game after another underwhelming display in Saturday's 1-0 win at Chelsea, though. 

The Blues dominated possession and racked up 21 shots compared to Newcastle's six, albeit while toiling to create clear openings, and Woltemade was very much on the fringes of the game before being hooked shortly after the hour mark. There's plenty to like about the German, who has the technical capacity and vision to be a match-winner, but he has to start imposing himself.

That means crashing the box at every opportunity, even if he continues to be used in midfield. Woltemade is currently the definition of a sleeping giant, and it's time to wake up, or else his Premier League career will be short-lived.