VfB Stuttgart CEO Alexander Wehrle has suggested the money received from Newcastle United for striker Nick Woltemade was more than welcome, perhaps even covering COVID related costs.
Wehrle has an interview with Sport.de today in which he discusses the transfer and how the money will be more than welcome at the German club.
Woltemade completed a late move to Newcastle last week, with the Magpies paying €85m to finalise a deal for the highly rated German striker as a replacement for Alexander Isak, who secured his long sought-after move to Liverpool.
It was a club record deal for Newcastle, eclipsing the €77.5m deal previously paid to Real Sociedad for Isak in 2022.
It was also a record sale for Stuttgart, whose previous record was the €35m deal that took Benjamin Pavard to Bayern Munich in 2019. They’ve already reinvested some of the Newcastle money, bringing in €40m worth of new arrivals to help cover the loss of their star man.
And it seems the rest of the money might go to helping the club out, with Wehrle explaining that matters have been difficult since 2022.
“We had a difficult economic starting position in 2022 after the coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
“We had to invest heavily in the stadium renovation, and in recent years it has been important to consolidate. Last year, with €15 million after taxes, we achieved the best financial result since 1893, and we will certainly present a very good result this calendar year as well.
“That’s a foundation. But when you consider how much substance we lost due to the coronavirus pandemic—€90 million in revenue—it still means that we are being Swabian-friendly with every single euro. We will continue to do so in the future.”
