Category News

It felt a long way from the Premier League.

Nick Woltemade was on loan at Elversberg when the forward lined up against Rot Weiss-Essen in the third tier of German football in 2023.

He may have been an unmissable 6ft 6in (1.98m), but he was not a household name just yet.

However, team-mate Luca Durholtz knew what Newcastle United’s future record signing could do.

“One of Rot Weiss-Essen’s staff members said to me ‘that tall camel isn’t a player, is he?’

“I said, ‘just wait and see how he plays, my friend’.

“We won and Nick scored.”

Woltemade has become used to proving people wrong.

It was just last month that Bayern Munich supervisory board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge claimed Newcastle were “idiots” for paying £69m to sign him from Stuttgart.

But Woltemade is understood to have merely shrugged off the remark.

Rather than commenting directly, he has instead let his performances do the talking.

And the German, who was subject of multiple failed bids from Bayern last summer, has made a strong start to his career on Tyneside, scoring four goals in his first five starts.

The towering Woltemade looks like a typical battering ram.

The forward has scored half of his goals for Newcastle with his head and he even opened his account for Germany after getting on the end of a corner against Northern Ireland on Monday.

But appearances can be deceptive.

Woltemade’s team-mates at Newcastle have quickly realised they can give the frontman the ball and he can keep hold of it under pressure, wriggle away from his marker or play a pass that brings others into the game.

According to football stats database FBref, he has received 108 passes for Newcastle – which illustrates the trust of those around him, as well as his ability to hold on to possession.

The technical forward also boasts one of the top five pass completion percentages (82.6%) at the club.

As well as being a focal point Woltemade can drop deep and link play, feeding rapid wingers such as Anthony Gordon and Anthony Elanga, and the majority (71) of his 132 touches have been in the middle third of the pitch rather than the final third.

Former team-mate Durholtz said “this striker profile doesn’t really exist” elsewhere while friend Jorik Wulff, similarly, added “most teams do not have a player type like him” after he rose through the ranks with Woltemade at Werder Bremen.

“He doesn’t move like a striker who’s two metres tall,” Wulff said. “He wants the ball at his feet and tries to dribble and go past defenders, so he’s not the typical player you expect when you see him.

Those qualities certainly caught the eye of Eddie Howe.

The Newcastle head coach first watched Woltemade play for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga last season, before monitoring the German’s progress as he won the Golden Boot at the European Under-21 Championship.

After seeing targets Joao Pedro, Hugo Ekitike and Benjamin Sesko go elsewhere, Newcastle made their move for Woltemade in August – just a few days before striker Alexander Isak left the club to join Liverpool.

Each twist of his proposed switch to Bayern Munich played out in public but this transfer quietly progressed.

Woltemade’s camp did not necessarily have an extensive knowledge of Newcastle at the time, but they got a good feeling from the first contact and the personable nature of the approach.

They could tell Newcastle had a clear idea of how to use Woltemade and were even pleasantly surprised how the coaching staff were open to evolving their style of play to get the best out of him.

He had only been at Stuttgart a year, and had family nearby, but felt he had to seize the moment to go to the next level.

There is context here.

Woltemade became the youngest player to ever represent Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, at the age of just 17, but his career did not exactly take off at that point, leading to a loan to Elversberg under manager Horst Steffen two and a half years later.

“Nick has stayed true to himself, tried to work on himself and improved,” Steffen said. “He regularly took advantage of his opportunities when he got playing time, especially in Stuttgart. This made it clear how good he is.

Such belief has served Woltemade well after he was thrown straight in at Newcastle.

Newcastle had intended to ease the new arrival in at first, and work on his fitness in between games to prepare him for the physicality of the English game.

But forward Yoane Wissa’s knee injury disrupted those plans and Woltemade has ended up starting five of the seven matches he has played for the club.

He hit the ground running, but it has still been an adjustment.

Though the Bundesliga is an intense league in its own right, the Premier League is particularly quick and Woltemade has also come up against strong defenders.

He has already scored more headers for Newcastle than he did at Stuttgart in the whole of last season, but the tall forward has won just 27.8% of his aerial duels in the top flight.

Just as Newcastle are adapting to Woltemade’s strengths, the new arrival is also adjusting to a demanding role – having come off with cramp on his goalscoring debut against Wolves.

There has been a greater emphasis on getting into the box and being in the right place at the right time, as he was when he diverted Sandro Tonali’s shot into the net with a clever flick against Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League earlier this month.

But his willingness to learn and help the team has impressed staff, along with his mentality.

Howe had a gut feeling that Woltemade could handle the pressure of playing in the number nine position for Newcastle when he first spoke to him, and his head did not drop following two misses against Nottingham Forest earlier this month.

He instead grabbed the ball, after his side were awarded a penalty, and powered home a convincing spot-kick in front of the Gallowgate End.

“We expected a lot from him and we signed him because we believe in him,” Howe said. “We believe that he can make the transition from another league, but it’s still so difficult to do with no training and after being thrust straight in.

“He hardly knew his team-mates’ names and he’s playing. Then you’re judged instantly on whether you’re going to be a success or failure. That’s tough.

Inter Milan’s 20-year-old striker Francesco Pio Esposito is rightly being lauded and scored his first goal for Italy against Estonia last week, but another name is making waves – Francesco Camarda, a player three years younger, and potentially more devastating.

Together, they could well become the strike partnership that defines the Azzurri’s future.

At 17 years, six months and 18 days old, Camarda scored his first Serie A goal against Bologna in September, becoming the youngest player in Lecce’s history to do so – the AC Milan forward sent south to gain experience on loan under Eusebio di Francesco.

With that goal before the international break, he broke yet another record in his remarkably precocious career.

Camarda had already made history on 25 November 2023, when he came on late in Milan’s game against Fiorentina.

Under Stefano Pioli, he became the youngest player to make his debut in Serie A. The Italian FA granted Milan a special exemption to allow Camarda to play at just 15 years, eight months, and 13 days, because regulations do not allow players under 16 to feature in the top flight.

He was also the youngest player to appear for Milan, breaking the record held by legendary defender Paolo Maldini.

The following season, under Paulo Fonseca, he made his Champions League debut against Club Brugge – with a goal ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) – becoming Milan and Italy’s youngest player to feature in the competition at 16 years and 226 days.

This week, he also became the youngest Italian ever to score for the under-21s national team. On his Azzurrini debut against Sweden in a European Championship qualifier, the 17-year-old netted a cheeky Panenka penalty.

It showcased all his qualities – composure, quick feet, strength on the ball, and an ice-cold temperament in front of goal.

“Sometimes, when he drops deep, he still looks a bit raw technically, but inside the box he’s a phenomenon,” said manager Massimiliano Favo, who led Italy Under-17s to victory at the 2024 European Championship, where Camarda was his main striker.

In that tournament, despite being a year younger than most team-mates, Camarda scored four goals – including two in the final against Portugal and the decisive penalty versus England in the quarter-finals – earning both the trophy and the player of the tournament award.

“His hunger and the way he earns the respect of team-mates are his biggest strengths, even more than his natural scoring instinct, because he lives for goals,” said Favo.

Camarda, who has always played with older team-mates, has been regarded as a prodigy in Italy for years.

But Milan – his boyhood club, where he has been since age seven – have done well to shield him from the spotlight. He, in turn, has let his talent do the talking.

“You could tell right away he was different. His awareness and speed of thought stood out,” said Angelo Carbone, former head of Milan’s youth academy and now in charge at US Sassuolo.

“The first time I saw him was at a seven-a-side trial. He did things with incredible simplicity – direct, effective play, and decisions beyond his age.

“You could see it in how he used his body and received the ball – those are innate qualities. Even before the play reaches the box, he already knows where to be to get to the ball first.”

And if anyone still doubted his confidence, former AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic provided proof in his own way.

“When I messaged Ibra, I was only 10,” Camarda explained in a news conference before the Sweden game. “I admired him a lot, and still do. He’s a player I’ve learned so much from.”

Camarda – who has a tattoo of the San Siro’s Curva Sud on his right arm – seems to take everything in his stride, showing remarkable calm under the weight of expectation.

“Honestly, I don’t think about it much,” he said. “People say I’m destined for greatness – I don’t.

“I just focus on the present, day by day, trying to enjoy myself and give my best for both club and country. I try to block out the noise, because in the end the pitch speaks.”

The boy who has already scored more than 500 goals in youth football is very close to his parents, who moved from the Milan area to Lecce to support his development.

Milan clearly see him as part of their future – after fending off interest from the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United and Manchester City, they tied him down with a contract until 2028.

“I remember when, at 16, we called him up for the under-18s to play a friendly against the first team,” recalls Carbone.

“He was marked by Fikayo Tomori, and he scored right away. [Milan technical director] Maldini, who was watching, immediately asked to switch off the Milan Channel cameras – Camarda wasn’t under contract yet, and he didn’t want foreign clubs to notice him.”

“Maybe not right away, but in a few years, he’ll be a top player,” predicts Italy Under-21s boss Favo.

“Francesco has all the qualities to become a key figure for Italian football,” said Carbone. “Will it happen? We can’t say yet, but he certainly has everything it takes.

“He still has to follow his process of development though – he’s still just a 17-year-old kid.”

A kid who added two more goals to his tally in his second game for Italy Under-21s against Armenia on Tuesday.