Baumann rejects criticism over Werder losing Woltemade on free transfer

Just one year ago, Nick Woltemade left Werder Bremen for free to join VfB Stuttgart. A year later, he has been sold to Newcastle for a staggering €90 million, but Frank Baumann insists Werder couldn’t have done anything differently.

Werder Bremen recently saw their former youth player Nick Woltemade leave VfB Stuttgart to join Newcastle United in a staggering €90 million deal.

Just one year ago, Werder lost Woltemade on a free transfer to Stuttgart when his contract expired.

However, Werder’s former managing director for sport, Frank Baumann, insists that the club did not make a mistake, emphasizing that they did everything possible to keep the striker.

“It can only be considered a failure if one fails to do everything possible to keep him. That definitely was not the case,” Baumann told Bild.

“We tried to extend his contract with very good terms over a year in advance. I cannot identify any failure on Werder’s part,” he added.

Werder CEO Klaus Filbry, meanwhile, recently expressed his frustration over the transfer.

“I’m killing myself with the Woltemade transfer. I’m sure that it’s basically the best to get a player for nothing, so congratulations to Stuttgart basically getting a player for nothing and sending him a year later, after seven or eight months of significant playing time, for 85 or 90 million [Euros],” Filbry said in an interview with CBS Sports.

“We get a solidarity fee, and I’m happy for the player. He’s a great guy, but it’s at the same time one or two reasons why we felt the need to make a change (at the coaching position), because we need to develop young players and we need to give them a chance to play here and now we’re going all in.”