Will Woltemade be latest German strike star in England?

Woltemade leaves the Bundesliga after a whirlwind few year that saw him swap Werder Bremen for VfB Stuttgart, be left out of his new team's UEFA Champions League squad but emerge as their talisman for 2025/26, including five goals en route to lifting the DFB Cup.

That form saw him earn his first senior caps for Germany and also light up the U21 Euros during the summer. Despite public interest from Bayern Munich, the man nicknamed Woltemessi opted for a move to Newcastle United.

Watch: The best of Nick Woltemade

Jürgen Klinsmann
Bundesliga teams: VfB Stuttgart (1984-89), Bayern Munich (1995-97)
Premier League teams: Tottenham Hotspur (1994-95, loan 1997-98)

Amid the modern era of an extremely international football transfer market, it is difficult to emphasise what a sensation Klinsmann's move to London in 1994 caused. Having smashed 79 Bundesliga goals for Stuttgart, including a much-celebrated bicycle kick in 1987, and starred for Inter Milan and Monaco - as well as lifting the 1990 World Cup - he landed in England as a fully fledged footballing icon.

Some 21 goals later, his single-season spell was enough for him to become a Premier League legend too, while he was an instant fan favourite. On returning to Germany, he helped Bayern lift the 1995/96 UEFA Cup and 1996/97 Bundesliga crown. Nine more goals on loan for Spurs in 1997/98 was a fitting way to see out his remarkable playing career.

Watch: Jürgen Klinsmann's top 3 Bayern goals

Lukas Podolski
Bundesliga teams: Cologne (2003-06 and 2009-2012), Bayern Munich (2006-09)
Premier League teams: Arsenal (2012-15)

Known for his fondness for his hometown of Cologne along with his ultra dependable finishing, Germany legend Podolski - whose 49 goals for the national team surpassed Klinsmann's 47 - also made a splash in North London. 

After nearly a decade of terrorising Bundesliga defences - with 70 goals in 210 appearances, he hit 19 in the Premier League in two-and-a-half seasons at Arsenal. He tasted World Cup glory during his spell in England, as part of Germany's heroes of the 2014 tournament in Brazil. He added the FA Cup crown that year too to his Bundesliga and DFB Cup double from 2007/08 at Bayern.

Watch: Lukas Podolski - the Cologne boy with a hammer left foot

Karl-Heinz Riedle
Bundesliga teams: Blau-Weiss Berlin (1986-87), Werder Bremen (1987-90), Borussia Dortmund (1993-97)
Premier League teams: Liverpool (1997-2000)

Riedle made a name for himself as a clever centre-forward with strong timing and a commanding presence in the air. Smashing 18 goals as Werder Bremen took the 1987/88 Bundesliga title marked a highlight early in his career. He then became a big Dortmund legend by following two title wins with a brace in their unforgettable 1997 UEFA Champions League final win over Juventus.  

He would depart soon afterwards for Liverpool as an experienced forward operator and hit 11 Premier League goals for the Reds.

Niklas Füllkrug
Bundesliga teams: Werder Bremen (2011-14, 2022-24), Hannover (2017-19), Borussia Dortmund (2023-24)
Premier League teams: West Ham United (2024 - present)

The sight of the big target man gobbling up goals became a familiar one for Bundesliga fans from 2022, when he rose to the top of the German game in his late twenties following a prolific 2021/22 Bundesliga 2 season for Bremen (with 19 goals). He proved a force to be reckoned with in the top flight too, finishing the 2022/23 campaign as the Bundesliga's joint top-scorer with the newly promoted side with 16 goals.  

Füllkrug had battled his way into the Germany team by this stage - with his 14 goals so far for his country including strikes at the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024. Following a successful season-long spell at Dortmund, the Premier League came calling with West Ham.

Watch: The best of Niclas Füllkrug in the Bundesliga  

Marvin Ducksch
Bundesliga teams: Borussia Dortmund (2013-14), Paderborn (loan, 2014-15), Fortuna Düsseldorf (2018-19), Werder Bremen (2022-25)
Premier League team: Birmingham City (Championship, 2025-present) 

It feels near impossible to fully separate Füllkrug from his former partner in attacking crime at Bremen, Ducksch. The other half of the 'ugly ducklings' forward line that proved a menace both in the air and on the ground in 2022/23 would continue to rattle the goals after Füllkrug left for Dortmund, hitting 20 Bundesliga goals during 2023/24 and 2024/25.

He then followed Füllkrug to England in 2024/25. While his new employers, Birmingham, are currently in the second-tier Championship, their signing of Ducksch - who has two caps for Germany - signalled their intent to make the Premier League and line up a potential future reunion for the two old strike partners. 

Watch: All of Marvin Ducksch's Bundesliga goals

Timo Werner
Bundesliga teams: VfB Stuttgart (2013-16), RB Leipzig (2016-2020, 2022-present)
Premier League teams: Chelsea (2020-22), Tottenham Hotpsur (loan, 2024-25) 

'Turbo Timo', who boasts 24 goals for Germany in over 50 appearances, became a Bundesliga sensation at Leipzig when racing to 78 goals over four seasons. That earned him a move to Chelsea, and after going back to Leipzig and then on loan to Tottenham, he has 12 Premier League goals to go with over 100 strikes in the Bundesliga.

Kai Havertz
Bundesliga teams: Bayer Leverkusen (2016-20)
Premier League teams: Chelsea (2020-23), Arsenal (2023-present)

The centre-forward role is just one of a number that the versatile and skillful attacker can fill with aplomb. Scoring 17 goals as a teenager for Leverkusen in the 2018/19 Bundesliga showed the kind of finishing talent that he has taken to two leading lights of the Premier League in recent years. His winning goal for Chelsea in the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League final is a worthy highlight of a fine career so far.  

Fredi Bobic
Bundesliga teams: VfB Stuttgart (1994-99), Borussia Dortmund (1999-2002), Hannover (2002-03), Hertha Berlin (2003-05)
Premier League teams: Bolton Wanderers (loan, 2002)

The Germany international born in Yugoslavia made waves in finishing the 1995/96 Bundesliga season as top scorer with 17 goals. He would eventually hit 108 goals in the league for four different clubs. A brief loan spell at Bolton in the 2001/02 season saw him make a short but significant impact in England, as a hat-trick in a 4-1 win at home to Ipswich Town in April 2002 saw the club secure Premier League survival. 

Uwe Rösler
Bundesliga teams: Dynamo Dresden (1991-92, loan 1993-94), Nuremberg (1992-93), Kaiserslautern (1998-99)
Premier League teams: Manchester City (1993-96)

Rösler rose to prominence in the final years of the former East Germany and made more Premier League appearances (102) than he did in the Bundesliga (96). He scored goals everywhere he went, with 15 strikes for Manchester City in 1994/95 making for his most prolific top-flight season.

Serge Gnabry
Bundesliga teams: Werder Bremen (2016-17), Bayern Munich (2017 - present), Hoffenheim (loan, 2017-18)
Premier League teams: Arsenal (2012-2016), West Bromwich Albion (loan, 2015-16)

While the typical route of attackers on this list has been to make a name for themselves in the Bundesliga and then switch to the Premier League, Gnabry took the road less travelled in swapping the Stuttgart youth ranks for Arsenal. Despite impressing as a youngster on the fringes of the first team, he wouldn't become a regular in England.

He did find his way via Bremen into becoming a Bundesliga big name at Bayern, winning six league titles by the end of 2024/25 along with the 2020 UEFA Champions League. He went into the 2025/26 season boasting 91 Bundesliga strikes.