Tresoldi Pauses Italy Switch as Germany Opportunity Remains Open
Nicolo Tresoldi has hit pause on one of the most intriguing international tug-of-wars in European football.
Several leading Italian outlets report that the Club Brugge striker has not, after all, committed his future to the Azzurri. After talks at the FIGC headquarters with new Italy coach Roberto Mancini and technical director Claudio Ranieri, the 22-year-old is understood to have asked for more time and requested not to be called up for the upcoming Nations League fixtures.
For now, he wants to finish what he started with Germany’s Under-21s.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport and La Repubblica, that stance has led the FIGC to freeze his requested association switch with FIFA. The paperwork, once thought to be a formality, is back in the drawer.
A striker in demand
Tresoldi’s hesitation comes at a moment when his stock is soaring.
At Club Brugge, he has opened the season in ruthless form: five goals in seven matches. On Tuesday, he again underlined his rise, scoring in Brugge’s 3-2 Champions League defeat to Aston Villa. The result stung, the performance did not. His movement, his finishing, his relentlessness in the box – all of it is fuelling transfer talk and stirring interest from multiple national associations.
The noise around his future exploded at the end of August. Gazzetta reported he had chosen Italy. In Germany, Bild countered that he remained undecided. The truth, as this week shows, lies closer to the latter.
Roots in three countries, career in two
Tresoldi’s story is tailor-made for a battle of flags.
Born in Cagliari to an Italian father and Argentinian mother, he spent his early childhood in Italy before moving to Germany with his family at 13. There, he came through the academy at Hannover 96, sharpening the penalty-box instincts that now make him so coveted.
In 2025, Club Brugge moved decisively, paying €7.5 million to bring him to Belgium. He repaid them with an outstanding first season, enough to catch the eye well beyond the Jupiler Pro League.
On the international stage, Tresoldi has been tied emotionally – if not yet definitively – to Germany. Since Under-19 level he has worn the DFB shirt, and for the Under-21s he has produced 12 goals in 24 appearances. That is the “cycle” he wants to complete before making the biggest decision of his career.
The Nagelsmann near-miss
His rise almost took a dramatic leap last year.
Julian Nagelsmann, then Germany coach, considered Tresoldi for his World Cup squad. The striker himself revealed he was close, and Nagelsmann later confirmed it, saying Tresoldi was “really very close for a long time” to making the final cut.
Nagelsmann described him as a player with “that special instinct in the penalty area” – a line that has followed Tresoldi ever since. It still was not quite enough to get him on the plane, but the coach made one thing clear: Tresoldi’s “time will come”.
That time might now arrive under a different man.
Klopp watches, Mancini waits
Nagelsmann has gone, stepping down after Germany’s disastrous World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Jürgen Klopp has taken over and will name his first squad on 17 September. So far, he has stayed silent on Tresoldi in public.
Germany, though, know exactly what is at stake. Lose Tresoldi now and they hand a prime-age No 9 to a traditional rival. Convince him to stay and they secure a striker built in their system, honed in their youth teams, and now thriving in European competition.
Italy are in no less urgent a rebuild. Mancini has returned to the national team after another World Cup qualification failure, tasked with dragging the Azzurri into a new era. The calendar offers no time for sentiment: Belgium on 25 September, France on 2 October, Turkey twice on 28 September and 5 October in the Nations League.
Those games will go ahead without Tresoldi. By his own request.
So the contest moves off the pitch, into meeting rooms and phone calls, into quiet conversations with family and advisors. A Cagliari-born, Germany-raised, Bruges-based striker sits at the centre of it all, scoring freely while two giants of the game wait for his answer.
How long can he keep both nations on hold?
