Nicolo Tresoldi's Decision on International Future

Nicolo Tresoldi is still thinking.

For weeks, Italy had moved as if the decision was already made, as if the Club Brugge striker were about to slip seamlessly into an Azzurri shirt. Now, that script has been torn up.

According to several Italian outlets, Tresoldi has not committed his international future to Italy after all. In a meeting at the FIGC headquarters with new national coach Roberto Mancini and technical director Claudio Ranieri, the 22-year-old asked for time. No call-up, not yet. Not for the upcoming Nations League games. Not while another chapter remains unfinished.

Germany not off the table

Tresoldi wants to complete the current cycle with Germany’s Under-21s before making the biggest decision of his career. That stance has forced the FIGC to hit pause on his requested association switch with FIFA, as reported by Gazzetta dello Sport and La Repubblica. The paperwork is ready. It will stay in the drawer for now.

This is no fringe prospect hesitating on the sidelines. At Club Brugge, Tresoldi is in full stride. His performances have lit up the early season, driven transfer rumours and stirred interest from multiple federations. The noise peaked at the end of August when Gazzetta claimed he had chosen Italy. In Germany, Bild countered: still undecided.

The truth lies closer to the German version. Tresoldi is weighing everything.

A career built across borders

His story is already one of movement and identity. 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 joined Hannover 96 and grew through their ranks, finding a home in the DFB system.

In 2025, Club Brugge spent €7.5 million to bring him to Belgium. It looks like money well invested. He scored in Brugge’s 3-2 Champions League defeat to Aston Villa on Tuesday, another sharp finish that underlined his form. Five goals in seven games this season; the numbers match the eye test.

His Germany record is equally convincing. Since the Under-19s, Tresoldi has worn the DFB badge at youth level. For the Under-21s alone, he has 12 goals in 24 appearances. That is not promise. That is production.

Nagelsmann’s almost-man

Julian Nagelsmann saw it early. During his time in charge of Germany, Tresoldi came close to a World Cup call-up. Very close.

As Nagelsmann later revealed, the striker was “really very close for a long time” to making the squad for the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The coach praised Tresoldi as a player with “that special instinct in the penalty area” – the kind of penalty-box predator Germany have often craved.

It still wasn’t enough for that World Cup. The door closed, but not with a slam. Nagelsmann made it clear he believed Tresoldi’s “time will come.”

Nagelsmann is gone now, a casualty of Germany’s disastrous campaign. The World Cup was, in German terms, a catastrophe. He stepped down in the aftermath. The rebuild passed to Jürgen Klopp.

Klopp will name his first squad on 17 September. He has not yet spoken publicly about Tresoldi. He will know the file, though. A 22-year-old, scoring freely in the Champions League, proven in the German youth set-up, still unbound at senior level. It is the kind of opportunity a new national coach rarely ignores.

Italy rebuilds, Germany waits

Italy, too, are in reconstruction mode. Mancini has returned to the bench with the Azzurri again on the outside looking in after missing another World Cup finals. The Nations League now doubles as laboratory and launchpad.

Across the next international break, Italy face Belgium on 25 September, France on 2 October and a double-header against Turkey on 28 September and 5 October. Those fixtures would have been an ideal window to blood Tresoldi, to plant the flag early and decisively.

Instead, they will play on without him. The recruitment push has not failed, but it has stalled.

For the FIGC, this is an uncomfortable limbo. For the DFB, it is an unexpected second chance.

A decision that defines a decade

Tresoldi stands at the crossroads of three cultures: Italian roots, Argentinian heritage, German football education. His boots currently speak a universal language – goals – but the badge on his chest will soon have to follow just one anthem.

For now, he has chosen the only thing a 22-year-old in form should choose: time, games, and clarity. He will finish what he started with Germany’s Under-21s, keep scoring for Club Brugge, and watch as Klopp and Mancini shape their new eras.

At some point, the waiting will end. The next squad list that carries his name – whether under a black, red and gold flag or the tricolore – will not just mark a debut.

It will lock in a future.