Nick Woltemade made the move to Newcastle United in the UK this season. Yet it has not been a fruitful one, and he may need to up his game to feature in the German World Cup squad.
Transfers seldom go as well as expected, especially when they involve moving to a different country. This was a truth for Nick Woltemade, a former Stuttgart alumnus who moved to the EPL this year. With half a season yet to play, can he turn his fortunes around and secure a place in Germany’s 2026 World Cup campaign?
Woltemade at Newcastle
Woltemade was originally recruited to replace Alexander Isak, a task that was no easy feat. The Stuttgart player arrived with a club transfer record of £69 million on his back, already piling on the pressure. This entrance to Newcastle was made all the worse when he scored an own goal against Sunderland, causing the team to lose their local derby, and social media went into a frenzy.
Luckily, this was somewhat overshadowed by the toxicity that had surrounded Isak’s departure to Liverpool. The Newcastle supporters stuck by him due to his own loyalty, and since then, he has had a fair season, though maybe not the blistering run that fans had hoped for. At the time of writing, he has scored ten goals in competitions, and there is still a good part of the season left. This suggests he may still be able to pick up the form that was expected.
Throughout January and the first half of February, he was dogged by a goal-scoring drought. This left his last goal of 2025 taking place during a 2-2 draw with Chelsea, which was not broken until a February 3-1 win over Aston Villa.
A Change on the Horizon
The new betting sites rated by bestbettingsites.co.uk have the odds for Newcastle’s league chances standing between 750/1 and 1500/1. This is not so much their performance alone, but the competition. Man City are around 11/4 with Arsenal 4/11. At the time of writing, they are tenth in the EPL.
It was this win at Villa that had him looking like a player reborn. The FA Cup win saw him play in a much deeper position, where he managed to help the team to an impressive second win away and advance to the next round. Admittedly, this position only came about due to several major injuries that Howe had to deal with. They included Joelinton, Lewis Miley and Bruno Guimaraes. A change to a 4-2-3-1 position put Woltemade just behind the striker.
The game was a controversial one at best. No VAR was present, which meant Newcastle lost a penalty when Lucas Digne’s handball was misjudged to be outside the box. Added to this was an opening goal against Newcastle, which was clearly offside when played back. Villa also went down to ten men when keeper Marco Bizot took out Jacob Ramsey for no real reason.
The first two goals were driven home by Sandro Tonali, with Nick Woltemade adding a third. Yet his play elsewhere was also superb, in contrast to much of the rest of his season. He won two free kicks, had 31 successful passes and took two shots, one of which connected.
Woltemade at the 2026 World Cup
This change in fortune may have come at just the right time for Woltemade. He has expressed his desire to play at a World Cup, and the next one is fast approaching. In a recent interview with British Magazine GQ, he admitted that “You always say as a kid, this is the dream, to play a World Cup. I’ll be 24; for the next one, I’ll be 28, when I’ll be in my prime. Then I may not even play in the next one because I’ll be 32. But we have a good team, and I’m feeling confident.”
Coach Julian Nagelsmann will be on the verge of making his decisions on who will be travelling to North America with them. Woltemade will need to get his legs stretched at the March friendlies between Switzerland and Ghana, and this is another chance for him to impress.
If he does, then he may see selection for further rounds against Finland and the USA. After this, the limited squad of 26 players will be chosen. Some players, like Joshua Kimmich and Florian Wirtz, are almost a given. Yet others need to up their game, and this includes Woltemade.
All of this depends on whether Germany even goes to the tournament at all. The German Football Association (DFB) is one of many that are considering a boycott of the World Cup due to the actions of the US. This is due to the imposition of tariffs and threats to take Greenland from Norway. Oke Gottlich, a DFB vice-president, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper, “I really wonder when the time will be to think and talk about this boycott concretely. For me, that time has definitely come.”
Woltemade is now in a league where some of the world’s best attacking footballers play, making it hard to get noticed unless a season is anything but spectacular. This year, Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko made the move to the UK. Yet there have been rumours that if things don’t improve, he may be set to come back to Germany and arrive at Bayern Munich.
