The most talked about player in Germany right now is not Bayern Munich’s new signing Luis Diaz nor is it perennial top scorer Harry Kane. Both netted as Bayern won the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup but all eyes were on the striker still wearing a Stuttgart shirt.
Nick Woltemade is a target for Bayern after a fine first season at Stuttgart during which he scored 17 goals before going on to become the top scorer at the European Under-21 Championship in the summer. He made his senior debut for Germany just before that.
Such things do not go unnoticed at Bayern, as their former striker Claudio Pizarro explains. “When a German player is doing well, then Bayern is like, ‘Okay, the spotlight is out.'” Woltemade was in that spotlight before, during and after Saturday’s showpiece opener.
Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade duels against Bayern Munich’s Dayot Upamecano
Despite being denied a goal from close range by Manuel Neuer, he impressed. Dayot Upamecano, the physical Bayern centre-back, marked him closely but Woltemade showed that he was up for the fight, holding the ball up well for Stuttgart throughout.
“I have a feeling that Nick is very strong in times like this,” says Atakan Karazor, his Stuttgart captain. But it is difficult to overstate the pressure on Woltemade in Germany right now. Stuttgart are holding firm but his agent keeps talking. And Bayern keep pushing.
Speaking to Jurgen Klinsmann, the former Germany international who made his name at Stuttgart before eventually going on to play for Bayern, there is nothing but empathy. “It is a very logical sequence of thoughts that happens to you,” Klinsmann explains.
“When a big team like Bayern Munich knocks at your door, there is a simple question that you have to ask yourself. Woltemade is probably sitting in his home or talking to his family or whoever he talks to. ‘What if I don’t do that? What happens if I don’t do that?’
“I think the answer is already there. I think in every profession you want to do the best you can do. It is just in your human nature because you want to drive to play for the biggest possible team out there. It is very difficult for Stuttgart to [fight] against that.”
What is all the fuss about? Well, there are not many forwards who stand at 6’6″ tall and have the sort of ability that Woltemade possesses. The good-feet-for-a-big-man cliché might have been invented for him. Cacau, the legendary Stuttgart striker, sums it up.
“He is an amazing player,” Cacau tells Sky Sports. “He can score goals but he can also give assists. And he is a perfect player for Stuttgart, the perfect number nine. He plays very unconventionally because he is tall but he is also technical. Very, very good.”
Rather oddly given his vast frame, Woltemade completed 31 dribbles in the Bundesliga last season. He is much more than a mere target man even if he obviously has the potential to fulfil that function. He can also roam wide, drop deep, bring others into play.
“Everybody can see also his dribbling and his technique,” says Karazor. A modern twist on the big striker, then. And yet, it is this sense that he is a throwback to forwards of yesteryear that helps to explain his allure in Germany, a country still craving such players.
“You see the history of the German strikers, they are always tough, big guys, scoring a lot of goals,” says Pizarro. “And in the last years, you did not see that much. So I think it is going to be something special to get a player like that again in the Germany team.”
Klinsmann agrees. “These number nines, on a global level, they are very, very rare. Very few countries have them. We love number nines in Germany so having this kid Woltemade coming up is a big hope because it is still a very important position to fill.”
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The best of Bayern Munich target Nick Woltemade’s 2024/25 season for Stuttgart
There remains a lot for him to learn. He only signed for Stuttgart last summer – and that on the back of a season in which he scored twice in 30 Bundesliga appearances for Werder Bremen. Pizarro was once a team-mate of his there despite being twice his age.
“I know him really well. I played with him when he was 17. When I was there, I was the experienced guy. He didn’t talk much to me. I tried to talk to him but he was really quiet, but a nice guy. And I could see how he improved. I think that he is something special.
Pizarro adds: “He has to learn still, because he is really big, but sometimes he does not use his body like he could do, or score many goals with the head. But as I said, he still needs a little bit of time to improve in some things, but I think he is a great player.”
There is a feeling that, for now, that improvement is most likely to happen at Stuttgart where he would remain an important player, starting regularly in both the Bundesliga and in Europe. It is there, at the Swabian club, that he lifted the German Cup in May.
Nick Woltemade with the trophy after winning the DFB-Pokal with Stuttgart
At Bayern, there is the prospect of him fitting into the team with Kane, particularly following the injury to Jamal Musiala and the exit of Thomas Muller. “It could be an option,” says Pizarro. “You can see that he can play all around the front half in the pitch.”
But the long-term ambition would be for him to assume Kane’s mantle as Bayern’s main striker. The question everyone is asking in Germany is when that journey should begin. “Stuttgart is still a place where he can learn more,” adds Pizarro. But for how long?
“It is a big challenge for him and for Stuttgart because it is a new situation for the player and the club and to manage everything is not easy,” says Cacau. “I hope that he can play one more year. And then he can leave for Bayern or maybe a Premier League club.”
Until then, all eyes are on Nick Woltemade’s every move.
