Can Niclas Füllkrug expect a bigger transfer when he turns 30? Bayern impressed with his performance at the World Cup

Werder Bremen striker and German national team player Niclas Füllkrug celebrated his 30th birthday on 9 February. In the current season, the Hannover native is certainly enjoying the best period of his career. Are there any more interesting engagements waiting for him?

In his youth, Niclas Füllkrug played for the Hanoverian clubs Ricklingen TuS and Sportfreunde. A fateful move to Werder’s youth team followed in 2006 when he was thirteen.

He was a talented goal scorer in the youth and when Werder’s B team was promoted to the third division, he scored a solid 5 goals in 22 games in the 2011/12 season.

In the same year he also took a peek at the Bundesliga, appearing in 11 games and scoring once. 33 games and 6 goals in his first season in pro football is not a bad feat for a 19-year-old.

But he had a lot of competition in the attack. Club legend Claudio Pizarro, Swede Marcus Rosenberg and promising youngsters Marko Arnautovic and Sandro Wagner didn’t let him into the game too much.

In addition, there was a problem with damaged cartilage, which came back twice later in his career. Werder decided to send him on loan to second league Fürth to play.

He scored 6 goals in 21 games there and pleased his neighbours Nuremberg so much that they bought him out of Werder after his one-year loan spell. He was particularly successful there in 2015/16, when he scored 14 goals to lead the club to the Bundesliga barrier.

However, Füllkrug failed with his team in the barrage, which also happened during his time at Fürth. However, a transfer to Hannover followed in the summer of 2016, with whom he managed to qualify for the Bundesliga at the third attempt after one season in the second league.

A 14-goal season followed. Then came the cursed cartilage injury again, so it was little surprise that he was bought back from Hannover by parent Werder in the summer of 2019.

But he only lasted the first four rounds of the 2019/20 season before tearing his ACL. After recovering, he returned for the last four rounds. Even so, he still managed 4 goals in just 8 games. In addition, he helped Werder save themselves in the Bundesliga barrier.

After another not so good season from a personal and team point of view, when Werder were relegated, Füllkrug was on a roll in the second Bundesliga. with 19 goals he contributed to an immediate return to the top flight.

With 14 goals, he currently leads the scorers’ table and gets on famously with his partner Marvin Ducksch, with whom he is known as “die hässlichen Vögel” (the ugly birds).

The striker nicknamed Lücke, after the gap between his front teeth, played for the national team for the first time in a friendly match before the 2022 World Cup and scored immediately.

He only missed a goal against the Japanese at the tournament. With a record of 4 games and 3 goals, he is probably Germany’s number one striker at the moment. That’s also why other clubs are circling around him.

According to Transfermarkt, Hoffenheim, Mönchengladbach and Everton are currently in talks. Bayern were even interested in him during the World Cup. I could see him as Lewandowski’s successor.

He’s a cannonballer with a nose for goals, good choice of position, at 189 cm a good header, strong with his back to goal, hard working, not afraid to get involved in combinations. His weakness is definitely his injury history.

If Bayern aren’t happy with Choupo-Moting, Füllkrug could easily arrive in Munich. In many ways he is similar to Lewandowski and Choupo-Moting and would fit Bayern’s game.

I could see him in England as well, where he would feel like a fish out of water with his concept of football. In Germany, he could do with a move to Dortmund, maybe even Union.

Source: Transfermarkt