Nine million euros per goal and most recently he did not even have a squad number! A former hopeful of the Germany team is hoping for the romance effect
Instead of being Germany's national-team striker, Niclas Füllkrug is now a goalscorer without goals. Can the 33-year-old stop the downward spiral with his old love?
"The Hanover-born striker scored his goals everywhere he played," West Ham United said at the start of August 2024 as they celebrated the signing of Niclas Füllkrug. Tim Steidten, now squad planner at 1. FC Cologne and then technical director at West Ham, knew Füllkrug well from their time together in Bremen and lured the striker to London.
Almost exactly two years later, that line rings hollow. Füllkrug has not scored his goals everywhere he has played. For the traditional English club, now relegated to the second division, the bitter reckoning is this: each of Füllkrug's rare goals cost them a hefty nine million euros.
West Ham sent 27 million euros to Dortmund in 2024. Füllkrug then managed just three goals in 29 appearances for the club, the last of them coming back in April 2025. A loan move to AC Milan in the second half of last season also went badly wrong, and Füllkrug suddenly found himself staring into the void. The Hammers were desperate to get rid of him this summer despite a contract running until 2028. He played no role at all in their plans and was even recently listed without a squad number in the official squad list. His No. 11 had already been taken by fellow striker Taty Castellanos during Füllkrug's loan spell at Milan.
From a football romantic's point of view, that spell on the sidelines in London has now opened the door to a real bombshell: Füllkrug is expected to return to Werder Bremen, with the Bundesliga club set to sign him on an initial one-year loan according to media reports. In the far north, where he also came of age as a footballer, Füllkrug had risen to become a Germany international a few years ago. Can he flourish there again now and finally enjoy better times once more?
Another question has followed Füllkrug around in recent days: how did it come to this? He joined West Ham off the back of the best spell of his career and believed he was perfectly equipped for the best league in the world. After finally staying injury-free for once, Füllkrug first fired Werder back into the Bundesliga and then became a reliable goalscorer in Germany's top flight in 2022/23. The reward was his Germany debut in November 2022, and shortly afterwards Füllkrug was one of the few bright spots in the DFB team at the disappointing World Cup in Qatar.
Niclas Füllkrug in summer 2024: Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund, super sub in the DFB team
Up to the summer of 2024, the striker remained an indispensable part of the national team squad. He impressed with his positive energy and strong scoring rate, then shone at Euro 2024 on home soil as an important substitute. In the previous season, he had been Borussia Dortmund's No. 1 striker, reached the Champions League final with BVB and scored important goals on the run there. Late bloomer Füllkrug, free of injuries at the time, seemed to have several rosy years still ahead of him.
From the outside, the departure from Dortmund after just one year came as quite a surprise. Borussia Dortmund had signed a prominent competitor in Serhou Guirassy in 2024, but even so, then head coach Nuri Sahin would reportedly have liked to keep Füllkrug. For Borussia's bosses, economic reasons in particular favoured letting the 24-cap international go again so soon. West Ham were offering 27 million euros, ten million euros more than Dortmund themselves had paid Bremen 12 months earlier. They were happy to take that transfer profit.
On paper, as was widely expected, Füllkrug's physically robust style of play should have suited the Premier League well. In the end, it did not, something he admitted himself in a kicker interview in February, explaining that at West Ham he had had "few touches in and around the box". "And that's exactly where my strength mainly lies."
The truth also includes the fact that Füllkrug had a great deal of bad luck with injuries after his move to the Premier League. First his Achilles tendon troubled him and kept him out for months, then a thigh injury laid him low just one month after his comeback. That made it impossible to find any rhythm at all in his first West Ham season. Everything was supposed to get better in the second year, and at first it did. At least for the first seven matchdays, which he came through without injury, though by no means convincingly. Then came the next injury, before a departure loomed for a long time around the turn of the year from 2025 to 2026.
Niclas Füllkrug's loan to Milan begins promisingly but then turns disappointing
Füllkrug wanted a fresh start in a different league and a different environment. He did stress that the World Cup was not the decisive factor in that, although the dream of taking part in the World Cup certainly played a bit of a role when he joined AC Milan on loan at the start of January.
"I feel that the style of play suits me much better than in the Premier League," Füllkrug said after his first appearances in Serie A. "The Fußballgott has arrived," Milan wrote on X, when Füllkrug scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Lecce in mid-January just three minutes after coming on. "Of course we know what an incredible striker Füllkrug is. He has proved that in the past. He brings qualities to our team that are very important," praised provider Alexis Saelemaekers.
What really won over Milan's fans was that Füllkrug scored the golden goal against Lecce with a broken toe. "I'm German, we're strong, we can deal with pain," he said with a laugh, stressing: "I don't want to miss a game for AC Milan." His popularity at San Siro rose rapidly, and DFB sporting director Rudi Völler also raised hopes at the end of January of a place in the World Cup squad: "He is playing significantly more than at West Ham, and that benefits us too," Völler told Gazzetta dello Sport.
Now we know that neither a World Cup appearance for Füllkrug nor a successful future in Milan came to pass. The goal against Lecce remained his only one in a Milan shirt, and he never got beyond the role of substitute. Former Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann did not take Füllkrug to the World Cup, and the Rossoneri did not trigger the purchase option, even though it was reportedly only around five million euros.
Niclas Füllkrug in search of a club: it was complicated
For the time being, he had to return to West Ham, where the club largely ignored him. The search for a new club also clearly proved difficult for the former DFB team hopeful.
That makes sense in a way. Füllkrug has now reached an advanced footballing age, was most recently earning a lavish salary reportedly worth 4.5 million euros per year, and has had two forgettable seasons behind him. Across club and national team matches, Füllkrug has managed just five goals in 52 appearances over the past two years.
Those are hardly bullet points to make Füllkrug especially attractive on the transfer market. Because he felt the style of football in Serie A suited his game quite well, a permanent move to Italy looked obvious. That was also reflected in the usual speculation over potential new employers: Lazio and Fiorentina are said to have made tentative enquiries, while according to reports Füllkrug had even already agreed a three-year contract with Venezia FC. But according to Bild the Serie A promoted side found the fee demanded by West Ham too high, which is why Venezia backed away again.
Return to Werder Bremen: Niclas Füllkrug is banking on the romance effect
According to Sky, the Hammers were asking for five million euros for Füllkrug. That was possibly still within range for some Bundesliga clubs, who were said to have kept monitoring the No. 9's situation despite the difficult past two years. Contrary to other media reports, Füllkrug had recently at least been largely integrated into first-team training at West Ham, and his physical fitness is right. That, too, will certainly have played a part in the romantic return to Bremen coming about.
According to Sky Füllkrug is giving up money for the move, as Werder cannot pay him the two million euros per year he would still have earned at West Ham after relegation. But was there really an urgent need for a centre-forward at SVW? Swiss World Cup participant Cedric Itten had already arrived as a similar type of battering-ram striker, while new signing Kenny Quetant and home-grown Salim Musah are two young talents waiting for their chance behind him. But according to reports, Bremen coach Daniel Thioune is also considering a system with two genuine strikers, which does make a Füllkrug return seem sensible.
Expectations around the Weserstadion will certainly be high. Can Füllkrug do it again there, where he is especially loved and where he once already took his career to a new level, now at 33? And could he possibly play a role in the national team again in future under new Germany coach Jürgen Klopp?
The coming months will answer those questions. For now, only one thing is certain: in Bremen, Füllkrug has already scored his goals.
