Nick Woltemade gets colourful horse comparison from Juventus boss

The German striker left Tyneside for the Serie A giants in a season-long loan deal on transfer deadline day, and made his debut as a second-half substitute in Sunday's 1-1 draw with AC Milan.

Woltemade struggled to adapt to the Premier League, despite a proming start 12 months ago, with just one top-flight goal to his name in 2026.

He fell down the pecking order under Eddie Howe, and any hopes he had of regaining a regular place under new head coach Matthias Jaissle soon faded.

With his gametime set to be limited, Woltemade agreed to make the switch to Juventus, with Newcastle signing Belgian forward Matias Fernandez-Pardo.

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However, Spalletti has been impressed with the 24-year-old in his first week in Northern Italy, and gave a typically colourful assessment of his attributes.

"What type of horse is he? I have a Friesian, he seems very similar to me," he told Tuttosport. "He is statuesque, he inspires a bit of fear from a physical point of view and then he is very sweet and lets himself be stroked and ridden.

"He becomes very good also in relations with his team-mates. He’s good at holding his own physically, and ever since I met him, he’s been smiling constantly. He’s so happy to be here, and that’s already a big thing."

While Woltemade only played the final 15 minutes of the draw with Milan, Spalletti has seen plenty to suggest he will get more minutes in the near future.

"With Nick you can play the ball on his feet," he added. "He knows how to play horizontally and can also be used vertically because he has this physicality and this height. Usually it is difficult to find these two worlds in the same player.

"The two-metre tall one is a finisher perhaps in the area but then he is less relational on the pitch, but instead he has both things and then he has this great quality of being very joyful and very festive also in the way he behaves on the pitch."

Juventus are next in action when they Sassuolo on Sunday night before they start their Europa League campaign against Dutch side NEC Nijmegen.

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