On August 30th, Nick Woltemade left VfB Stuttgart and completed a permanent move to Newcastle United for €85m plus €5m bonuses.
Bayern Munich courted the 23-year-old earlier in the summer window but weren’t able to strike a deal with Stuttgart, and this allowed the Magpies to seal his signing last month.
Earlier today, the Germany international said the talks he had with Eddie Howe played a role in his decision to join Newcastle.
This week’s edition of SportBild gives an interesting insight into the manner in which the Tyneside club reached an agreement with Stuttgart to secure the frontman’s services.
Julian Nagelsmann included Woltemade in his squad for September’s matches, and the latter wasn’t able to tell the Germany manager about his transfer to England due to an ‘unexpected dynamic’ that took place between Newcastle and Stuttgart.
Howe’s side qualified for the Champions League and will start their campaign against Barcelona on Thursday, while Stuttgart made it to the Europa League.
The group stage draws for the Champions League and the Europa League took place on August 28th and 29th respectively in Monaco, and the officials of Newcastle and Stuttgart were in city for the European draws.
According to the report, the Premier League club made their first official offer on August 28th and later that day, Stuttgart, led by CEO Alexander Wehrle and sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth, had a personal meeting with the Newcastle officials in Monaco.
It was during this meeting, the two clubs made a breakthrough in the negotiations ‘over a bottle of white wine’, and the following day, Stuttgart and Newcastle finalised the deal at Le Méridien.
