Juventus already shopping for Woltemade's replacement
Barely a month into his loan from Newcastle, Nick Woltemade faces doubts in Turin as Juventus explore alternatives including Mateo Retegui and Folarin Balogun.
Juventus have begun lining up alternatives to Nick Woltemade for next summer, despite the German striker only joining the club on loan from Newcastle late in the transfer window, according to Football Italia, citing a report in La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The report states that a viral miss for Germany against Serbia has deepened existing concerns in Turin. With roughly half an hour left on the clock in Munich, Woltemade shot wide from two yards out with an open goal in front of him, a miss that drew heavy criticism in the German press.
Luciano Spalletti had reportedly hoped that Jürgen Klopp's new setup with the German national team would reinvigorate the forward. Instead, Woltemade has featured sparingly for his country and has yet to register a goal since the switch.
A profile that does not fit the role
The underlying issue, as described in the report, is less about a single miss than about fit. Woltemade has described himself as more of a second striker than a conventional No 9, and that self-assessment matters in a Juventus squad that already carries several players suited to operating just behind a central striker.
There is also a physical contradiction worth noting. At 1.98 metres, Woltemade would appear to offer an obvious aerial outlet, yet he has admitted that duels in the air are not his strongest asset. For a side that may want a focal point capable of winning and holding up balls under pressure, that gap between size and function is significant.
None of this means the loan collapses immediately. Football Italia reports that the arrangement is still expected to run its course and end in June as originally planned. But Juventus sporting director Giovanni Carnevali is already weighing up three alternatives for next season, which points to a lack of confidence that Woltemade will convince the club to make the move permanent.
Three very different answers to the same problem
The names under consideration suggest Juventus are not settled on what kind of striker they actually want. Mateo Retegui, formerly of Atalanta and now at Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia, represents the most proven goalscoring threat of the three, a player with a track record in Serie A before his move to the Saudi Pro League.
Folarin Balogun, the former Arsenal forward now at Monaco, offers a different kind of profile: younger, mobile, and still searching for the consistent output that would make him an obvious upgrade rather than a lateral move.
Antonio Raimondo is the outlier, a Bologna-owned striker currently on loan at Frosinone where he has scored four league goals this season. He is less the finished product than a development bet, the kind of signing that would represent a longer-term project rather than an immediate fix.
Weighing a returning Serie A scorer, an unproven former Premier League forward and a developing loanee at the same time suggests Juventus have not yet decided whether they need an established No 9 now or a profile to build around for the future. That indecision is itself telling about how unconvinced the club is that Woltemade answers either question.
What the Woltemade saga actually shows
Taken together, the reporting points to a mismatch between expectation and reality. Woltemade arrived as a tall, modern forward with the attributes to play as a focal point, but his own description of himself as a second striker, combined with his admitted discomfort in aerial contests, undercuts the assumption that he can lead the line in the way Juventus may need.
A single international miss will not define a transfer dossier on its own, but it has clearly become a shorthand for broader doubts already circulating in Turin before it happened. The timing, barely weeks into the loan, is what makes the story notable: clubs rarely begin planning a successor this early unless real reservations already exist.
For now, the loan runs to June as scheduled, leaving Woltemade time to answer those doubts on the pitch. Juventus, in the meantime, are reportedly keeping Retegui, Balogun and Raimondo as contingency options regardless of how the rest of the season unfolds.