Former Everton player dubbed 'enormous young talent'…

Former Everton player dubbed 'enormous young talent' retires because his body 'no longer co-operated'

Over six years on from his arrival at Goodison Park, Shani Tarashaj remains an enigma to Evertonians after announcing his retirement from football at the age of just 27.

Sport Witness cite 20 Minuten back in Tarashaj’s Swiss homeland as reporting that the forward has decided to hang up his boots and while his career had started “promisingly” and he was considered one of his country’s “greatest talents” at one point, the former wonderkid was “unable to assert himself” on Merseyside or anywhere else he went and two years after officially departing the Premier League, he conceded that his body “no longer co-operated.”

Everton originally signed Tarashaj on a four-and-a-half-year contract for a £3million fee on January 7, 2016, although he was loaned back to his previous club Grasshoppers of Zurich for the remainder of the season. Typically, then-Blues boss Roberto Martinez, the man who would splash out a further £13.5million on Oumar Niasse less than a month later, was full of hyperbole about his recruit.

The Catalan proclaimed: “Shani is an enormous young talent in Swiss football who, without a doubt, will have a great future. We’re delighted to have found a young player who believes that our club is the perfect step for him to enhance his quality and to grow his career.

“He fits in really well to our style and the way we want to play the game. He is a family boy, hungry and he is desperate to fight for his place in our talented young squad.

“I’m delighted we have been able to act quickly and secure the deal for Shani which means that, due to his national service commitments, he will be able to be part of our first team squad from next season. Grasshopper have been very professional and the deal has been conducted in an exemplary way.”

Everton manager Roberto Martinez with new signing Shani Tarashaj at Finch Farm on January 7, 2016 (Everton FC via Getty Images)

The problem was in between Tarashaj’s signing and the summer, Everton had a 3-3 draw at Chelsea (going 3-2 up on 90 minutes but conceding an equaliser eight minutes into additional time); a 3-2 home defeat to West Ham (having been 2-0 up until 12 minutes to go and missing a penalty to make it 3-0); a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield and a stoppage time 2-1 loss at Wembley to Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final, by which time long-suffering Blues had seen enough of Martinez and new owner Farhad Moshiri sacked him before the final game of the season. By the time Tarashaj finally made it to these shores, Ronald Koeman was at the helm and like Niasse – who infamously wasn’t even given a locker by the Dutchman – he found that he wasn’t part of the new manager’s plans.

He did get a few run-outs in pre-season, including a second half appearance in a 3-0 win at Barnsley in which he got a 7 from Greg O’Keeffe in the ECHO player ratings with the encouraging remark: “A clever player who linked-up nicely with Barkley and looked sharp”.

This correspondent was one of the select few to see him turn out in the flesh at MK Dons on July 26. I gave him a mark of 6 for his 45-minute run-out in a 3-1 win over the League One outfit and stated: “Quiet but had a few flashes including a goal that was correctly disallowed for a handball before he shot. Forced off at the break after suffering a bloodied nose.”

Tarashaj never got to play a competitive match for Everton but was loaned out to German side Eintracht Frankfurt later that summer. He then had a year back at the Blues in 2017/18 without figuring for the first team before being loaned back to Grasshoppers again in 2018/19, and then Dutch outfit Emmen the following year before his contract at Goodison Park expired and he spent the past two years with FC Zurich’s reserve team, unable to rediscover his earlier promise.

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