Despite making a flying start to his Newcastle career there has been a bitter backlash from Bayern Munich after they were outbid for Nick Woltemade
11:53, 29 Sep 2025Updated 15:02, 29 Sep 2025
Nick Woltemade of Newcastle United(Image: AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)
Newcastle United have been lambasted by German legend Karl-Heinz Rummenigge over the £69million fee they paid for Nick Woltemade.
Rummenigge, who is is a supervisory board member at Bayern Munich, watched on as the German champions opted out of a move for Woltemade as the transfer window drew to a close. Bayern felt that Stuttgart’s demands for the 23-year-old were too high for a player plying his trade in the third tier of German football just two years ago with SV Elversberg.
Rummenigge told Blickpunkt Sport: “I’ll be honest: When this story with Woltemade and then the demand from Stuttgart came up, I, said as well as Uli Hoeness folks, we’re slowly getting to a level that I simply don’t find acceptable anymore.
“We shouldn’t fulfill every demand to make someone happy, especially the financiers at VfB Stuttgart.
“I can only congratulate those in Stuttgart for finding – I’ll use quotation marks here – an idiot who paid that much money. Because we certainly wouldn’t have done that in Munich.”
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Hoeness had said after the window closed: “Of course, we would have liked to have Florian Wirtz, but we’d never have bought him for €150m. We offered €55m for Nick Woltemade, while Stuttgart wanted €75 million. In the end he went to Newcastle for €90m.
“What Newcastle are doing has nothing to do with football. It’s like Monopoly these days.
“He [Woltemade] isn’t worth the fee. That only happened because of the money flowing from Saudi Arabia.”
Bayern sports director Christoph Freund had also said last month: “Bayern Munich is Bayern Munich, a very, very big club.
“It’s always the player’s decision. We at Bayern Munich are very, very attractive; we notice that again and again when we talk to players. Financially, the Premier League is in a different league. You have discussions, you have a certain relationship.
“Ultimately, it’s the player’s decision as to what’s the best step for his career. We’re not involved in that.
“The sums of money involved; how much money is at stake; that they have brutal opportunities in the Premier League. Not just two or three clubs, many clubs. Newcastle is a good club, but not the top tier.”
Woltemade had responded himself to talk about his fee and commented last month: “I didn’t make my price, so I can’t do anything about it. I just want to play football, and what the clubs pay is not my decision.
“But I am really happy that the club trusted me so much that they paid so much money. This club gives me a good feeling.”
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