Nick Woltemade has been dubbed ‘one of the most exciting players in Europe’ after scoring on his Newcastle United debut on Saturday.
Woltemade was Newcastle’s matchwinner this weekend as the Magpies beat Wolves 1-0 to register their first Premier League win of the season.
Newcastle signed Woltemade in a club record £69m deal in the summer transfer window as a replacement for Alexander Isak, who joined Liverpool.
Woltemade is brand new to the Premier League – having arrived from Stuttgart – but shined on his first appearance for Eddie Howe’s side.
The 23-year-old Germany international forward completed 89 per cent of his passes, won three of his four aerial duels and had five touches in the opposition box against Wolves.
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‘This is one of the most exciting players in European football,’ football pundit and former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha told the BBC.
Newcastle boss Howe added: ‘It was great to see Nick score on his debut. Very strong, I was very pleased with him.
‘Tactically he understood what we wanted. It was a shift for him, he had cramp at the end. [But] he took his goal brilliantly.’
Woltemade, meanwhile, said: ‘It felt amazing, just all the fans, everybody was happy, I was happy.
‘Of course, right now if you’ve won the game that’s more important also. I’m very happy about it.
‘The Premier League is quite hard, I had to [be substituted] out because I had cramps. For the first game I think it’s OK to come in.
‘It was amazing, the atmosphere, the team played really good balls, they involved me a lot. I think we did quite good.
‘I just try to play my game, like to drop off from the nine and come to where I can get the balls.
‘I want to adapt to this league, its really hard. I want to look forward and keep going.’
Newcastle also signed Yoane Wissa from Brentford this summer and Howe is hoping that the two new forwards can play together in the XI.
‘It’s something we can do and we’ll look at,’ Howe said. ‘I don’t know if we want to change the tactical framework too much but I’ll never rule anything out.’
Woltemade conjured up 18 goals across 36 games for Bundesliga side Stuttgart before he moved to Newcastle in the summer window.
He’ll be hoping to get back on the scoresheet when Newcastle face Barcelona in the Champions League on Thursday.
from: elfutbolero.us