As Nick Woltemade made his way out of Bayer Leverkusen’s media theatre on Tuesday night he noticed that a series of chairs had been dragged untidily out of position. Most footballers would simply have walked on by but the 6ft 6in Newcastle forward is a little different from the rest and he duly stopped and tucked them all back into position beneath a long desk.
Out on the pitch Woltemade’s highly-technical approach is nothing if not similarly neat and he has returned to his home country on a Champions League mission. Namely to show his compatriots that Eddie Howe has imbued his game with a dangerous new dimension. While the adhesive touches, deft flicks and clever link play that have always distinguished Woltemade’s performances remain, the Newcastle manager’s “physics” have enhanced the mix.
“I think especially my physical work is getting way better,” Woltemade said, speaking with a maturity, intelligence and humour that belied his 23 years. “I can sprint more, I can win more duels. It’s really important for the Premier League and the gaffer has worked with me a lot because, in this league, you don’t get many chances as a striker sometimes.”
The benefits are psychological as well as physical. “The feeling for myself now is that I always know I can score a goal,” said the former Stuttgart striker. “I think this is what Newcastle gave me also a lot, because I always have that feeling in the game now. I think, ‘OK, I can score a goal’, even when I don’t touch the ball maybe for some minutes. I know always the ball will come because I have such good teammates. They give me good balls. But I think all in all, the thing I have most improved is the physics.”
In Germany, and particularly in the vicinity of Bayern Munich, there are still plenty of pundits happy to mock Newcastle as “idiots” for paying £69m for Woltemade in the summer. His seven goals for the club this season suggest it was money well spent and the man himself is, outwardly at least, unconcerned. “To be honest, I don’t care,” Woltemade said. “I think a lot of people speak about me and, if I would listen to everything, what it’s saying about me, I can’t focus on myself anymore. So I don’t read it.
“I’m just taking care of myself, and focus on myself, and that’s the way that helps me the best. At the end I’m not deciding what someone is paying for me, but I can say I’m really happy that Newcastle is paying this for me because I’m really happy that I’m now in Newcastle.”
Many footballers might baulk at questions regarding their love lives but Woltemade merely smiled when he was asked if he had found a Geordie girlfriend? “I don’t know why everyone is talking about this,” he said. “But, no, I have a lot of games so I didn’t really have time.” The good news for Howe is that he has affection for his adopted city and Yoane Wissa. The former Brentford striker is finally fit following three months sidelined by a knee injury and Woltemade believes they can form a menacing partnership, perhaps even against Bayer Leverkusen and then at Sunderland on Sunday.
“I’m really happy living in Newcastle and I’m really excited about playing with Yoane,” said a striker seemingly more suited to a No 10 than a No 9 role. “He’s a really good, quality player. He’s a player who can score goals and also he’s a nice guy. He brings really positive vibes in the team because he’s laughing a lot and gives good energy. We can definitely play together.”
Perhaps inevitably, Woltemade was asked if Peter Crouch had been a role model in his youth. “I’m too young, I wasn’t born until 2002,” he replied. “But when I was 16 at Bremen my teammates called my ‘Crouchy’ because I was so tall and skinny.”
Judging from Howe’s demeanour, Newcastle’s manager regards Alexander Isak’s successor as near perfect. “Nick’s done brilliantly, “ he enthused. “I’ve just had the pleasure of half an hour with him on the way here and he’s just a great person, a really good character. Nick’s got the ability to laugh at himself and that’s always a good quality to have. It was great to talk to him about the German league and the German mentality.
“On the pitch, he’s done really well. It’s very difficult to come in and do what he’s done. He’s fitted in superbly. He’s really bought into the team ethos in terms of giving for the team, whether that’s out of possession, whether that’s coming back and defending set plays, which he’s actually done really well for us, and, of course, scoring goals. But there’s still so much more to come from Nick. I’m excited about what he can be.”
Howe remains insistent he is not prioritising the north-east derby and knows a win in Leverkusen would all but secure Newcastle a place in the Champions League playoffs with two games – at home to PSV Eindhoven and away to Paris Saint-Germain – remaining. It would also leave them possibly one more victory away from earning a top-eight finish and proceeding straight to the knockout rounds.
Leverkusen may be a shadow of the side that Xabi Alonso led to the 2023-24 Bundesliga title but Kasper Hjulmand’s team contain the prolific Czech international striker Patrik Schick and the talented Spain left wing-back Alejandro Grimaldo. Moreover, after a summer of turmoil featuring the exits of key players including Florian Wirtz and Granit Xhaka, not to mention Erik ten Hag’s short-lived managerial tenure, Leverkusen appear to have stabilised, seen with their 2-0 win at Manchester City last month.
Woltemade represents a different challenge for Leverkusen. Should Hjulmand’s defence fail to subdue him here, no one in Germany is likely to dub Newcastle “idiots” again any time soon.
