Nicolo Tresoldi Delays International Decision Amid Italy and Germany Interest
Nicolo Tresoldi is not ready to choose. Not yet.
Despite reports in Italy that the Club Brugge striker had pledged his future to the Azzurri, the 22-year-old has hit pause on one of the biggest decisions of his career, asking for time before committing to an international shirt.
Italy’s push meets Tresoldi’s pause
In recent days, Tresoldi sat down with new Italy coach Roberto Mancini and FIGC technical director Claudio Ranieri at the federation’s headquarters. It was there, according to several Italian outlets, that the narrative changed.
Rather than sealing his switch, Tresoldi is understood to have asked not to be called up for the upcoming Nations League fixtures and requested more time to think. The FIGC, faced with a player clearly torn, have responded by putting his FIFA association change on hold.
For now, the file is closed. Not cancelled. Just pushed to the back of the drawer.
One key reason: Tresoldi wants to finish what he started with Germany’s Under-21s. He has been a consistent presence for the DFB youth sides since Under-19 level and has built a real body of work there — 12 goals in 24 games for the Under-21s underline his importance and his attachment.
A striker in demand
While the debate over his passport plays out, Tresoldi is doing the one thing that guarantees attention: scoring goals.
At Club Brugge, he has started the season with the ruthless edge of a striker who knows the world is watching. Five goals in seven matches already, including a sharp finish in Tuesday’s 3-2 Champions League defeat to Aston Villa, have kept scouts busy and national team coaches alert.
His performances have fuelled both transfer talk and a tug-of-war between federations. The noise grew louder at the end of August when Gazzetta dello Sport claimed Tresoldi had opted for Italy. In Germany, Bild countered that he remained undecided. The truth, as it stands, sits closer to the latter: he is still weighing it all up.
The interest is no surprise given his route to this point. Born in Cagliari to an Italian father and an Argentinian mother, Tresoldi spent his early childhood in Italy before moving to Germany at 13. There, he came through the ranks at Hannover 96, sharpening his game in a country that has long prided itself on producing clinical centre-forwards.
In 2025, Club Brugge moved decisively, paying €7.5 million to bring him to Belgium. It already looks like smart business.
Almost Germany’s World Cup wild card
Tresoldi’s rise in Brugge did not go unnoticed in Germany. His first season in Belgium was so impressive that Julian Nagelsmann seriously considered him for the World Cup squad.
Nagelsmann later admitted just how close Tresoldi came, describing him as “really very close for a long time” to making the final list and praising his “special instinct in the penalty area”. For a young striker still carving out his name, that sort of endorsement matters. It also explains why the door to Germany has never felt fully shut.
Nagelsmann ultimately left him out, but stressed that Tresoldi’s “time will come”. That time may be approaching faster than expected — only now it would be under a different man.
Nagelsmann stepped down after Germany’s disastrous World Cup campaign in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Jürgen Klopp has taken over and will name his first squad on 17 September. He has not yet spoken publicly about Tresoldi, but the profile fits: energetic, instinctive, penalty-box sharp. Klopp has built teams around forwards like that before.
If Germany want to keep him, the moment to act is looming.
Italy rebuilds, and waits
On the other side of the equation stands an Italy side deep in reconstruction. Mancini has returned to the bench after yet another World Cup qualification failure and is tasked with reshaping an Azzurri attack that has too often lacked a reliable finisher.
Tresoldi, with his Italian roots and Serie A-ready skill set, ticks a lot of boxes. He is young, tactically flexible, and already proving himself on the European stage with Brugge.
Italy’s upcoming Nations League schedule is demanding: Belgium on 25 September, France on 2 October, and a double-header against Turkey on 28 September and 5 October. These would have been ideal matches to ease a new striker into the squad, test him against top-level opposition, and sell him on the project.
Instead, Mancini will go into that window knowing that one of his priority targets has asked to watch from afar.
A choice that shapes careers
This is no ordinary decision. Tresoldi’s story runs through Cagliari, Hannover and Bruges, through the youth systems of the DFB and the pull of the Azzurri shirt. He has already lived several footballing lives by 22.
Germany can offer continuity, a pathway he already knows, and the prospect of working under Klopp in a new cycle. Italy can offer a return to his birthplace and a central role in a national rebuild desperate for goals.
For now, Tresoldi is doing the only sensible thing: scoring, thinking, and refusing to rush a call that will define the next decade of his career.
The next time Klopp reads out a Germany squad list, and the next time Mancini sits down with the FIGC to plan a camp, one name will hang in the air. How long can a striker this hot stay undecided?
