Bundesliga: Nick Woltemade and VfB Stuttgart – it’s a match!

Without showing any nerves, Nick Woltemade took his penalty in the away game against Heidenheim at the weekend – and converted it dryly into the middle to make the final score 3-1. As if he had never done anything else at VfB Stuttgart. It was his league starting eleven debut for the Swabians.

While a few weeks ago no one was talking about Nick Woltemade, he is suddenly the link in Stuttgart’s offensive. After Deniz Undav was injured, coach Sebastian Hoeneß was missing another top striker alongside Ermedin Demirović. He found it in Woltemade.

The 22-year-old’s record from the last two league games is impressive: three goals, one assist. The already tall striker (1.98 meters) is on the rise. At VfB he is the surprise player of the season so far.

Only one person suspected for a long time what was slumbering inside him. Lothar Matthäus was already raving about Woltemade when he was still serving as a joker for the final minutes in Bremen – sports commentator Wolff-Christoph Fuss, who regularly works with Matthäus, said this in . “And when Stuttgart got him, he said to me – expressis verbis: They have committed a grenade,” said Fuss.

After Matthäus, Wolff-Christoph Fuss has now also become a fan of Woltemade and compares him to an English football legend: “He has something Peter Crouch-like about him.” Just like Crouch, Woltemade is a “lanky guy,” but “still technically adept, very supple, relatively fast.” It’s not for nothing that one of his nicknames was in Bremen.

But Woltemade is not the first surprise that VfB Stuttgart has pulled out of the hat. Since last season, those responsible at the club have generally been doing a lot of things right. There are plenty of examples of go-getters in Stuttgart that no one – except perhaps Lothar Matthäus – had previously considered: Deniz Undav, Chris Führich, Enzo Millot. And above all Serhou Guirassy, ​​who scored the Bundesliga short and short last season (39 goals in 50 games).

The fact that players like Guirassy and now Woltemade are suddenly working in Stuttgart speaks for the Swabians’ transfer policy – and for coach Sebastian Hoeneß. The 42-year-old knows how to use players according to their strengths and integrate them into the system. Same goes for Nick Woltemade.

At Werder Bremen, Woltemade went through all of the youth teams in the performance center and matured into a professional. He also learned to be more patient. “When things didn’t go well, I could get really angry and tears would always flow,” said Woltemade in . “I was very ambitious. Today I’m more introverted and do a lot of things with myself.”

Woltemade is a real “Bremer Jung”. It would have been the perfect story: a Bundesliga career with the club in his hometown. It almost drips with football romance. But as we all know, things turned out differently. Woltemade wanted more – and moved on to VfB.

In Stuttgart, Woltemade is now receiving this appreciation: “To be honest, I had a good feeling the whole time. They worked very well with me,” said Woltemade on the “Dazn” microphone after the Heidenheim game. “I knew that the moment just had to come when I could be on the pitch and get the trust of the coaching staff.”

Unlike in Bremen, where he only scored his first Bundesliga goal after 39 appearances, Woltemade didn’t need long to get used to Stuttgart. Some Werder fans take it with humor that Woltemade only made a big impact after he left Bremen. “Woltemade since he no longer plays for Werder,” says a post that shows the young Rudi Völler in the green-white jersey.

The comparison between Völler in his prime and Woltemade has been used a lot lately. Because of the talent of both of them – but also because of the messy long hairstyle. Under Woltemades, teammate Chris Führich wrote: “There is only ..” – an allusion to the lyrics of a famous hit song: “There is only one Rudi Völler”. In Stuttgart this apparently also applies to Nick Woltemade.

If Woltemade continues to impress at VfB, he could take on an important role in Hoeneß’ team in the long term. His contract runs until 2028. For the Swabians, Woltemade is a person with a future. The 22-year-old has already played for all of the U-national teams. He may also be an option for national coach Julian Nagelsmann at some point.