Youssef Chermiti made his first appearance of the season when he came on as a sub in the 79th minute against West Ham Utd last weekend. His season to date has been blighted by injury but hopefully that is behind him now.
Everton completed his protracted signing back in August 2023 when they landed Sporting CP forward Youssef Chermiti in a deal initially worth €15M and on a contract that would run to 2027.
Chermiti was regarded as a hot prospect by many observers in his native Portugal. He broke into Sporting's senior squad the previous season and played 22 times, scoring 3 goals.
But despite Everton's chronic lack of fire-power up front, Sean Dyche used him only sparingly in the first half of the Premier League season after giving him his full debut in the Carabao Cup at Doncaster. By the turn of the year, he had made just 8 sub appearances and, when asked about his development, the Everton manager responded, “His development is going well. He's adjusting to the physicality and nature of the English game, the way it's going in the Premier League.
“He's still a young player. You get a boy in for a few quid and everyone is like: ‘Why aren't they doing this, why aren't they doing that?’
“He's just a high-level development player but he's still a development player. We're looking for him to do that. He's doing it, working hard and enjoying it so far.”
In November 2023, he was included in the Everton U21 side that took on Mansfield Town in the EFL Trophy and secured a late win for the Blues after he was pulled down for a last-minute penalty that he powered home from the spot. And his first Premier League start would come against Brentford at Goodison in late April 2024 when Beto was sidelined by concussion and Dominic Calvert-Lewin was ruled out through injury.
He acquitted himself increasingly well despite feeding off scraps in what was a very direct style deployed by Dyche but, in his cameos off the bench as the season wound down, he began to show more and more promise and had, by the end of the campaign, displaced Beto as the first-choice striking substitute.
Ahead of the new season, he was promoted to wear Shirt Number 17 that had been vacated a year earlier by the departure of Alex Iwobi, and he started pre-season training well in July 2024, coming on as a sub to score a brace against Sligo Rovers.
Unfortunately, his hopes of kicking on at the start of the 2024-25 season were hampered by a foot injury sustained in pre-season that required surgery and consigned him to the sidelines for 4 months until he finally regained enough fitness to feature once again for the Under-21s against Nottingham Forest in November 2024.
He had done enough to get on the subs bench for 3 Premier League games in December until his rehabilitation was interrupted by a persistent thigh injury that would keep him out of action for a further 2 months before he would get his place back on the subs bench for the last 3 games.
And finally he was called up by David Moyes to make his first appearance of the season, coming off the bench in the 79th minute as Everton were trailing against West Ham and showing an impressive desire to make an impression during the final 15 minutes or so, despiteearning himself a quick yellow card.
With a crisp shot that was fired a little too close to West Ham keeper Areola, hopefully Chermiti did enough to show David Moyes that he is ready to provide meaningful competition for the lone striker spot, with Beto unfortunately shooting blanks since banking 5 goals in February, although Armando Broja may have something to say in this particular discussion…
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Posted 18/03/2025 at 15:50:55
I have no idea why, but from the moment I first saw this kid I've been convinced he was a player. In his one start last spring I loved his pace, his movement and his first touch.
And I don't think there's another player on the club who can crack a volley with his off-foot like he did against Hammers.
It's irrational after so few glimpses, but for some reason I just believe we have a star on our hands.
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