Bayern Munich’s honorary president, Uli Hoeness, has delivered a scathing swipe at Newcastle over the signing of Nick Woltemade.

The Bundesliga champions were heavily interested in the German striker prior to his club-record £69million move to the Magpies.

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The deal eclipsed the £63m Newcastle forked out to sign Alexander Isak in 2022, who ironically completed a British transfer record £125m move to Liverpool on deadline day.

The arrival of Woltemade ended Eddie Howe’s summer-long hunt for a striker after missing out on multiple targets.

The 23-year-old appeared to be one of the names on that list, having been earmarked to stay in his homeland by joining Bayern Munich.

However, Vincent Kompany’s side failed to agree a fee with rivals Stuttgart, which opened the door for Newcastle to hijack the move.

During negotiations, Hoeness was left angered by Bayern legend Lothar Matthaus seemingly driving up Woltemade’s price tag by publicly claiming €80-100m (£69-86m) was a fair valuation when the Bavarians were offering a lot less.

The lower end of that estimation ultimately proved to be exactly what Stuttgart managed to extract from Newcastle.

During an interview with German TV channel SPORT1, Hoeness was asked about Matthaus’ correct prediction and replied: “He was just lucky.

“He [Woltemade] isn’t worth the €90million”, Bayern’s honorary president continued in a dig at Newcastle and their PIF owners.

“That only happened because of the money flowing from Saudi Arabia.”

The signing of Woltemade represented a huge coup for Newcastle, given Bayern saw three bids rejected for the 6ft 6ins forward.

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‘Bayern were prepared to go all in for him’

European football expert Andy Brassell was previously full of praise for Woltemade ahead of his arrival on Tyneside.

Speaking on The Transfer Insiders last month, he said: “I think he’ll be a really good addition, and it is really impressive how they’ve kept this on the down-low because they keep getting gazumped by other clubs.

“Bayern were prepared to go all in for him. They were very, very keen. He was keen to go there. They wouldn’t get to the number that Newcastle have, and it has been a meteoric rise for him because he arrived on a free transfer from Werder Bremen, where he wasn’t a regular, and Stuttgart have turned him into this player in the space of less than a year.

“If you are looking for someone who is quite a faithful replacement for Isak with a high upside, I am not sure you could have signed many better players than him.

“He’s 6ft 6in, but he’s not your typical target man. He likes to drop and dribble.

“When Bayern wanted him, and Bayern were very keen, they thought he could play with Harry Kane.

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“I don’t know if there are many higher compliments than that because he’s got a very high football intelligence. He doesn’t lose the ball very often, and he’s constantly progressing.”

‘Not ideal that the best German players are moving to England’

Woltemade began last season simply nicknamed ‘Big Nick’ due to his 6ft 6in frame, but ended it called the ‘Two Metre Messi’.

In 2023/24, he broke through at Werder Bremen, but only scored two goals in 30 games, and they both came in the same match.

Stuttgart saw enough to see him make the step up to a Champions League team, and were rewarded with 17 goals and a club-record sale.

While the opportunity to replace Isak at Newcastle is a huge one, Woltemade’s national team manager expressed his one big concern.

The striker followed Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz in surprisingly snubbing a move to Bayern for a Premier League transfer from the Bundesliga.

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Julian Nagelsmann said: “I’m happy when they play a lot of games and get a lot of minutes, that’s the most important thing for me.

“It’s not ideal for the German Bundesliga that the best German players are moving to England. But that’s how it is.

“It’s kind of normal at this period of time.”

Nagelsmann’s comments come in the wake of Germany’s shock 2-0 loss in Slovakia – their first ever World Cup qualifying away defeat.