With the physique of a basketball player, not a classic center forward nor (so far) a ruthless striker: yet the German chosen by Carnevali is considered an exploding talent.
The centimeters and the face, as well as the posture, of an old pirate of the penalty areas must not be deceiving. Nick Woltemade is not a classic center forward, one of those who plant themselves up front and everything else has to revolve around them. Despite being 198 centimeters tall, he isn’t even a great header and in his not long career so far he hasn’t even been a relentless striker given that he only reached double figures in the German third series and one year with Stuttgart.
Yet he is the man chosen by Giovanni Carnevali and his transfer team to complete Juventus’ offensive department. Preferred to Joshua Zirkzee, barring last-minute changes, because in the end favorable conditions were created to take him away from Newcastle, overcome the competition from Borussia Dortmund, and give the Livorno coach the reinforcement he was asking for with the loan formula without obligations.
A necessary step for the Juventus club, after Jonathan David received the offer that was needed to convince him to move, freeing up space in the squad and in the wages, despite Atletico Madrid having obtained non-trivial help from Juventus in covering the sad Canadian’s salary.
Nick Woltemade is a modern striker, also used to tying up the team’s play and helping them move up. At least that’s how he showed off at Werder Bremen and Stuttgart, until his transfer to the Premier League twelve months ago. It didn’t go very well with Newcastle and perhaps the size of the financial operation also weighed a bit: 90 million euros. Woltemade cost Newcastle so much that they were engaged in a duel with Bayern Munich.
In Germany, the next Juventus striker is considered an exploding talent. Born in 2002, he has already made some appearances for the senior national team although he gave his best with the Under 21s; in the last World Cup he was on the pitch for only a handful of minutes in the match against Paraguay which cost the Germans elimination on penalties. He is not a deputy Kolo Muani in the technical sense of the definition, his characteristics are different.
It was, however, one of those opportunities that reveal themselves at the end of the transfer window and Carnevali – hurt by Kessie’s refusal in midfield – chose to sink the blow. For weeks, Spalletti has been signaling the need to put more in attack, despite the 50 million invested in Kolo Muani. Now Nick Woltemade covers this hole.
