Two years is an eternity in football…just ask VfB Stuttgart and Nick Woltemade.
By Zach Lowy
Back in the summer of 2023, Stuttgart had narrowly survived the drop after defeating Hamburg in the promotion/relegation playoff, whilst Nick Woltemade was coming off a promising season in Germany’s third division. Fast-forward to today, and Stuttgart have since finished second in the Bundesliga, qualified for the UEFA Champions League, and ended an 18-year trophy drought. As for Woltemade, he’s gone from an unknown commodity to one of the most exciting young strikers in Europe.
Born in Bremen, Germany, Woltemade joined Werder Bremen’s academy in 2010 and ascended the ranks for club and country before becoming the youngest player in Werder Bremen’s history to make their Bundesliga debut on February 1, 2020. With regular minutes hard to come by, Werder Bremen loaned him out to SV Elversberg for the 2022/23 season, where he led the club to a second-straight promotion with 17 goals and 10 assists in 35 appearances. It was enough to see him win the 3. Liga Player of the Season award and earn a heightened role in the first team; however, apart from a brace against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Woltemade failed to score in any of his 29 Bundesliga appearances during the 2023/24 season.
That certainly didn’t dissuade Stuttgart, who signed him on a free transfer and tied him down to a four-year contract. Initially seen as a long-term gamble, Woltemade was an unused substitute in their opening match vs. Bayer Leverkusen in the DFL-SuperCup and was excluded from their UEFA Champions League squad, but he nevertheless made an impression on Stuttgart manager Sebastian Hoeneß with his impressive late cameos off the bench. He opened his Bundesliga account in November with a goal vs. Eintracht Frankfurt before grabbing a brace vs. Union Berlin and a goal and assist at Heidenheim. By the time 2025 rolled around, it was already evident that Woltemade was no longer going to be a rotation option, but one of the first names on the team sheet.
Standing at 6’6”, Woltemade may seem like your average target man striker, but he’s far more versatile than that. Boasting splendid close control and physical prowess, Woltemade is skilled at holding up possession and riding challenges whilst keeping the ball glued to his feet as well as unleashing teammates with perfectly weighted through balls or backheel flicks. He thrives at dropping deep and luring in defenders before exploiting the vacated space with either a quick give-and-go, a lofted pass, or a powerful run into the box. It’s precisely these attributes that prompted Stuttgart captain Atakan Karazor to dub him a “two-meter Messi-Musiala.”
Woltemade has quickly established himself as a vital cog in attack for Stuttgart, scoring in each of their five cup matches – including the opening goal in their 4-2 win against Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB-Pokal Final – racking up 12 goals and 2 assists in 28 Bundesliga appearances, and making his debut for Germany’s senior team in the UEFA Nations League Finals. After completing his breakout campaign for Stuttgart, he then departed for Slovakia, where he guided Germany to the UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final with a tournament-high six goals.
Today, however, Woltemade’s future is up in the air, with German champions Bayern Munich eyeing a move for the young attacker. Having lost two important figures in Thomas Müller and Leroy Sané, Woltemade’s versatility and technical grace could Bayern to kill two birds with one stone by giving them a genuine competitor to Harry Kane in the No. 9 position as well as a player who can deputise on the flanks or even fill in for the injured Jamal Musiala as an attacking midfielder.
“Woltemade is an incredibly skilful player whose main strengths are dribbling and link-up play,” stated The Athletic’s Alex Barker. “It’s so tempting to compare him to Zlatan Ibrahimović due to his size and technical ability…he’s one of those players capable of driving straight through the heart of a defence. He needs to work on his shooting – I’d like to see him lace his shots more – and his ability in the air. Despite being a giant, he’s not good at using his size to bully others, which shows in a relatively weak aerial win rate for his size. But at the same time, most of his game is quite suited to Bayern’s play in terms of linking up well in tight spaces and keeping control of the ball.”
Looks can be deceiving, and that’s certainly been the case with Woltemade. Capable of zig-zagging through congested areas, timing his last-man runs to perfection, and taking on his man with remarkable efficiency, Woltemade is a multi-faceted striker who thrives at dismantling opposing defences with his dribbling, chance creation, and shooting. Woltemade has already followed in the footsteps of Ousmane Dembélé, Jude Bellingham, and Florian Wirtz by winning the VDV Bundesliga Newcomer of the Season award, and it’s seemingly only a matter of time before he follows in the footsteps of Serhou Guirassy, Waldemar Anton, and Hiroki Itō by becoming the latest Stuttgart player to earn a lucrative transfer. The only question is: will that transfer come in 2025 or 2026?
Whatever the answer is, one thing’s for sure: Nick Woltemade’s stock is only going to continue rising in the coming months. And at 23 years of age, there’s every reason to believe that he will continue to add layers to his game and challenge the likes of Niclas Füllkrug, Deniz Undav, Tim Kleindienst and Kai Havertz for Germany’s starting No. 9 role going into next summer’s FIFA World Cup.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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