Why West Ham have signed Niclas Fullkrug as their striker upgrade: Tactical fit, stats, career so far…

He is 31 years old, has never scored 20 goals in a single season in his career and, despite these facts, has cost £27 million. But make no mistake – Niclas Fullkrug is an aspirational signing for West Ham United.

The Hammers have spent heavily this summer in an effort to equip new manager Julen Lopetegui with a squad to compete in the higher reaches of the Premier League table. In have come Crysencio Summerville from Leeds for £25 million, Max Kilman from Wolves for £40 million, Luis Guilherme from Palmeiras for £25.5 million and Wes Foderingham from Sheffield United on a free.

Fullkrug’s arrival at the London Stadium tips the club’s summer spending past the £100 million mark. And of all their expensive new signings, it is the German’s capture that stands as the biggest signal of intent. Over the past 12 months, he has operated in the echelons West Ham yearn to occupy.

The German striker was a super-sub for the home nation at the European Championship this summer, scoring two goals from five appearances and regularly rattling opposition defences with his robust style when introduced. And after leading the scoring charts in the Bundesliga for the 2022-23 season, he moved to Borussia Dortmund a year ago and led them to the Champions League final last term.

Fullkrug’s journey to the top

Fullkrug has taken a winding path to reach the highest levels of the game. He began his career with Werder Bremen and showed enough promise within the club’s youth ranks to earn international recognition at the under-18, -19 and -20 levels. But he would have to wait until he was 29 for his senior Germany debut.

That’s because Fullkrug was unable to establish himself in the Werder first team and had to drop down to the second tier to build some momentum in his career, first through a loan with Greuther Furth and then with a permanent switch to FC Nurnburg.

A return of 15 goals in 34 games in the 2015-16 campaign earned him a move to Hannover, his hometown club, who were also in the 2.Bundesliga at the time – but not for long. Although Fullkrug only scored five goals in his first season with Hannover, the side from Lower Saxony won promotion to the top flight and then the powerful centre-forward took off. After enduring a scoreless streak of eight games to begin the 2017-18 season, he plundered a hat-trick against Mainz and went on to score 14 goals in 34 league games.

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That summer, Borussia Monchengladbach reportedly offered €18 million for Fullkrug, but Hannover resisted and tied the striker down to fresh terms. The following campaign was fraught with injury problems for the 6ft 2ins target man, however, and he was ruled out for the season in November.

His unusual and undulating career trajectory continued once he’d returned to fitness when he was re-signed by Werder in a deal worth around €7 million. Injuries and loss of form meant his return to the Weserstadion was shaping up to be no more successful than his first spell with the club. He was limited to his 33 total appearances in his first two seasons back with the club and they were relegated at the end of the 2020-21 season.

But once again Fullkrug found the second flight to be a stage upon which he could rebuild. He scored 19 goals to fire Werder back into the Bundesliga at the first time of asking. And then, back in the top tier for the 2022-23 season, he finished as the Bundesliga’s joint-highest scorer, his return of 16 goals matched only by RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku.

Taking to the international stage

And as that campaign paused at its midway point, Fullkrug finally became a senior Germany international, called up for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He netted as substitute on his debut in a friendly against Oman before scoring twice at the tournament despite Germany’s group-stage exit.

At the end of the season, Fullkrug’s shot at the big time arrived at club level, too. Borussia Dortmund forked out €15 million to take him to Signal Iduna Park.

With BVB last term, the 31-year-old returned a respectable 15 goals in all competitions, including three along Dortmund’s run to the Champions League final. But it was his ability to facilitate for others that shone brightest. His old-fashioned brand of physical forward play and well-honed hold-up game led to a career-high figure of eight league assists.

Fullkrug’s mode of creativity is not flash or eye-catching; his approach is more bludgeoning than balletic. But it is undeniably effective. The Dortmund star’s average of 3.49 successful aerial duels per 90 minutes last season ranked him in the 85th percentile among forwards in Europe’s five biggest league, and his average of 0.28 assists per 90 put him in the 86th percentile.

“Niclas is a playmaking attacker, very strong with his head, physically impressive, convincing in one-on-one duels and unpleasant for his opponents [to face],” said Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl upon signing Fullkrug. “With all these skills, he embodies the profile we were looking for.”

‘He can only be compared to Gerd Muller’

Legendary former German striker Rudi Voller evidently holds West Ham’s new star in the highest esteem, too.

“His strike rate is exceptional,” Voller said of Fullkrug’s prolific record at international level, where he has scored 13 goals from 21 caps. “He can probably only be compared to Gerd Muller.”

And while his price tag might appear hefty for a player of his relatively advanced age, Fullkrug believes he is only now reaching his peak.

“It is a position where you get smarter with every situation you experience in the box, where you learn and develop a better feel for the next situation,” he said in 2023.

“Extremely important are your finishing skills and the sense for your team-mates, to know your team-mates well, to know [when to go] for the near post, the far post, the short run, the deep run.

“And that’s what reflects in my game, that from game to game I get into better situations and that my age helps me more than it hinders me.”

Combining elite-level experience, masterful link play and a physicality that should see him thrive in the Premier League, there is plenty of reason to believe Fullkrug can succeed at the London Stadium where other recent pricey purchases have failed.

With the likes of Summerville, Jarrod Bowen and Mohamed Kudus around him, West Ham’s attack is upgraded with Fullkrug as its fulcrum.

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