Newcastle United star Nick Woltemade has made it clear he wants to return to his original position of striker next season.
Woltemade and Germany will kick off their World Cup campaign against Curaçao in Houston on Sunday, with all eyes on the 6ft 6in star in the US.
The £69million man ended the season with Newcastle playing in a deeper role as goals dried up in the second half of the campaign after being moved into midfield.
But Woltemade has spoken out on where he wants to play, telling reporters at the World Cup: "I'm an ambitious person and always want to reach my full potential. That's easiest to do in attack."
"But at Newcastle, I filled in at other positions, even as a defensive midfielder. Despite that, some pundits still considered me a striker. They'd ask, 'Why does Nick score so few goals? Why isn't he providing more assists?' Those were the wrong questions, and I didn't think they were entirely fair."
"A goal or an assist is expected of me in every game. But if I'm not playing in attack, it's significantly more difficult for me to get into dangerous scoring positions."
"The intensity of the criticism and the resulting unrest surrounding me have certainly surprised me."
Speaking on Woltemade's improvement towards the end of the 2025/26 campaign, head coach Eddie Howe stated he was pleased and hinted at a future partnership with Yoane Wissa.
Howe said in May: "I think again he's benefiting from the bigger sessions with 20 players that we've missed throughout the season and now we're beginning to work with him on the things we feel like we needed to earlier in the season but didn't have the opportunity to."
"I thought his pass for Yoane was sublime against Arsenal. It was great to see those two link together and looked like it could be a potential partnership for us."
