He’s not averse to scoring the odd ‘lucky goal’: will a sought-after rising star at BVB become Ole Book’s first transfer coup?

It is the third prominent association, alongside Germany and Italy, to be vying for Tresoldi – who was born in Italy and grew up mainly in Hanover – and who, thanks to his mother’s Argentine origins, has also been granted Argentine citizenship and could therefore play for that country’s national team. “Teams that have won the World Cup a combined total of eleven times,” Tresoldi recently remarked with a laugh when discussing this situation with the *SZ*.

Until now, there had only been speculation as to whether Tresoldi would receive a call first from Germany’s national coach Julian Nagelsmann or from Italy’s national coach Gennaro Gattuso. Tresoldi himself had fuelled these speculations when he told Sky Italia in autumn 2025: “My phone is switched on. If Gattuso wants to speak to me, I would be very pleased.”

Whether it will still be Gattuso calling from Italy in the near future is doubtful following the latest qualifying disaster for the footballing nation that has fallen so far from grace. Yet even a potential successor to Gattuso should have Tresoldi on their radar, given the Squadra Azzurra’s shortage of strikers, as long as he has not yet fully committed himself.

Tresoldi was born in Cagliari, Sardinia, and grew up in the small town of Gubbio in Umbria. His father, Emanuele, was also a professional footballer; although the left-back did not make it into the senior national team, he won the European Championship with the Italian Under-21s in 1994, alongside future World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro and Tresoldi’s childhood idol, Filippo Inzaghi. Tresoldi moved to Germany with his family at the age of 13, not because of footballing prospects, but because his mother had taken a job there as a flight attendant.

At Hannover 96, the striker – who had once dreamt of a career as a professional tennis player in Italy – progressed through all the youth teams and made his second-division debut in 2022 at the age of 17. Shortly afterwards, he was granted German citizenship and received his first call-up to the DFB’s U19 squad.

“They showed me a path, and I felt a great deal of appreciation right from the start, including from the association. That’s important for a player,” he revealed just over a month ago in an interview with LaGazzetta dello Sport. By contrast, he has never heard anything from the Italian Football Federation.

Apparently, nothing has changed in that regard to this day. Scouts from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) are said to have already been keeping an eye on Tresoldi, but there has been no contact yet with Gattuso, who typically fielded two traditional centre-forwards during the World Cup qualifiers – a campaign that ended in yet another humiliating failure. Following his €7.5 million move from Hannover 96 to Belgian runners-up Club Brugge, Tresoldi quickly established himself as a first-team regular there and has recently scored seven goals in seven league matches. Tresoldi has already scored 17 goals and provided five assists for his club this season and is still in the running for the title in the battle with Union Saint-Gilloises. In the Champions League, he has found the net against such illustrious names as Monaco, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.

His scoring record is equally impressive for the German U21 national team: in the seven qualifying matches for this season’s European Championship, he has scored six goals, most recently a brace in the 3-0 victory over Northern Ireland. “My greatest strengths lie in the penalty area; I have a good nose for space,” Tresoldi told the SZ, describing his qualities. Although he can’t dribble past three players or score from 25 metres into the top corner, he’s good at linking up play and holding up the ball – and he also enjoys scoring “rubbish goals from two or three metres out that don’t necessarily make it into the top ten of the season’s best goals.”

These qualities have already attracted interest on the ‘traditional’ transfer market. According to Sky, Tresoldi’s management is already in talks with various clubs from Spain, Italy and Germany regarding a potential move in the summer, with a transfer fee of between 25 and 30 million euros under discussion. Alongside Arsenal and Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer 04 Leverkusen are also mentioned as potential suitors.

At BVB in particular, a vacancy in the centre-forward position could arise should Serhou Guirassy leave. Whilst the Black and Yellows would still have Fabio Silva as a nominal centre-forward in their ranks, the Portuguese player has not exactly distinguished himself as a goalscorer so far (1 goal, 5 assists).

In that respect, Tresoldi’s profile would be a much-needed alternative, one that would also fit the new sporting director Ole Book’s criteria. The problem for Book and BVB: as things stand, the Black and Yellows’ transfer budget is said to be extremely small.

There could also be a need for a centre-forward in Leverkusen, as Christian Kofane’s agent has recently been very open about the interest from numerous top clubs and contact with Arsenal.

Tresoldi himself has already revealed his dream destination to La Gazzetta, which lies not in Germany but in Italy. “That is the dream that drives me to work hard every day. I feel very much at home in Bruges and know that I still have a long way to go. But the dream of playing for Milan is there, in my head. I think about it every morning when I get up.”

Niclas Füllkrug (33), who is currently under contract in Milan, is also a potential rival for a place in the German national team. For Füllkrug, however, his loan spell with the Rossoneri is turning into something of a disaster. His hopes of securing a place in Nagelsmann’s World Cup squad through goals and regular playing time are fading fast.

And because Tim Kleindienst (30) is also going through a difficult and injury-plagued spell at Borussia Mönchengladbach (six minutes of playing time in 2025/26), Tresoldi certainly has the prospect of a place in the DFB squad as a classic centre-forward. Admittedly, there will be no getting past Kai Havertz (26) and Nick Woltemade (24) for the time being – Deniz Undav recently found this out the hard way.

However, given his profile, his goalscoring record for Brugge and the U21s, and the injury-prone nature and age profile of his rivals, Tresoldi should by now be playing a role in Nagelsmann’s short- and long-term plans. Should the national coach’s call fail to materialise in the medium term, the DFB could once again miss out on a major talent. There have been plenty of examples of this in recent years.

Fisnik Asllani now plays for Kosovo, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria, Kenan Yilmaz for Turkey, and Josip Stanisic – after two U19 internationals for Germany – is now not only a regular at Bayern Munich but also a key player for Croatia. He alone could have resolved the DFB’s major headache on the right flank, a position that must now, out of necessity, be filled by Joshua Kimmich.

Now, of course, the German attack is packed with top-class talent ahead of the World Cup, featuring Havertz, Woltemade, Undav, Florian Wirtz, Serge Gnabry and the prospective return of Jamal Musiala. Nagelsmann emphasised, however, that he wanted to “definitely have a striker in the squad” who “can make a difference in the air when we need a goal and can’t solve everything with the magicians behind him because the opposition are defending so deep”. Now, Tresoldi is no proven heading specialist, but he can certainly “make a difference”. After all, he has already scored seven times with his head for Hannover and Bruges, and Nagelsmann simply doesn’t have that many alternatives at the moment.

In any case, Tresoldi’s phone is on – for the national coach, for other associations and, in particular, for new clubs. Whether with or without the World Cup: the 21-year-old has an exciting summer ahead of him, one that might take him back to Germany – or straight to his dream destination: Milan, Italy.

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