Shani Tarashaj’s Everton career has looked doomed from the start

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Everton will reportedly allow Shani Tarashaj leave the club at the end of the season when his current contract expires. The Liverpool Echo suggests the Swiss playmaker, currently on loan at Dutch side FC Emmen, will be on his way out in the summer. 

So why has a player who arrived with so much promise failed to make the grade at Goodison Park?

When Everton spent a reported (Liverpool Echo) £3 million on the Grasshopper Zurich star in January 2016 Roberto Martinez as quoted by the Daily Post as suggesting the Toffees had secured a ‘special’ recruit.

“I feel he is going to bring something very, very special to us. He is probably the best young talent in Swiss football.

“There are a couple of young players with a good reputation but I think he could have really good future…I feel that he’s going to get fans off their feet. He’s that type of young talent that we like to attract to Goodison.” 

But Tarashaj has never played for the Toffees. 

He was immediately loaned back to Grasshoppers upon his arrival and by the time he did arrive at Everton the man who signed him, Martinez, was gone. 

A subsequent loan to Eintracht Frankfurt followed and he has also spent time on loan back at Grasshopper and, eventually Emmen this season. 

Considering the playmaker is only 25-years-old and already had five caps for Switzerland when arriving at Everton it is a shock he has failed to live up to his potential.

However, the truth is a tale of genuine bad luck. Not only in Martinez’s departure, but with injuries and illness. 

His first appearance with Everton was a 2016 friendly with MK Dons, in which he suffered a nosebleed and a head injury. After that, Tarashaj went off the radar. His injury and illness record is heartbreaking. 

Tarashaj suffered a serious knee injury whilst on loan at Frankfurt but it is illness that has truly plagued him. 

A bout of benign angina was followed by a severe case of tonsillitis in Germany. This season has been another battle for Tarashaj. FC Emmen confirmed in a statement from January that Tarashaj, who has not played a single senior game for the Dutch club, was absent with a ‘serious flu’ and ‘private circumstances’ so it is clear the midfielder has not had it easy off the pitch. 

Hopefully, whatever the next step is for Tarashaj can be fruitful and Everton fans will no doubt have sympathy for a player who has clearly been dealt a rough hand since heading to Merseyside.