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… 

 

 

Reader Comments (18)

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Mike Gaynes
1 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 in the club who can crack a volley with his off-foot like he did against The Hammers.

It's irrational after so few glimpses, but for some reason, I just believe we have a star on our hands.

Derek Knox
2 Posted 18/03/2025 at 15:58:59
I hope Mike G is right, but also hope that his injury record is just a blip, with no recurrences.

One observation I did make from Saturday's game was that his yellow card should be appealed and rescinded. He made no shirt pull on the Hammers player, yet got penalised for it.

Many more previous serious West Ham fouls went unpunished – another example of inconsistent refereeing?

Mike Gaynes
3 Posted 18/03/2025 at 16:02:31
DK, I'm pretty sure he got the yellow for inadvertently poking the player in the eye with a flailing hand. Pure accident and definitely not worthy of a yellow.
Jay Harris
4 Posted 18/03/2025 at 16:04:47
Mike, I second that.

Although we haven't seen much of him, what he has been able to show holds much promise that he is going to do very well.

I still have high hopes for Beto too but in a different sort of way.

I think Chermiti can adopt to the team's style of play but in Beto's case the team has to adopt to his style of play. I think he is very much in the mould of "Feed the Yak and he will score" although that wasn't the case against Brentford.

Martin Berry
5 Posted 18/03/2025 at 16:28:22
He looks to have filled out since he first arrived and thats not a bad thing due to the Premier League's physicality.

I also think that this lad's going to be another Isak, I really do; he has a quality about his quick thinking and feet to match. I think we have a star in the making!

Ian Bennett
6 Posted 18/03/2025 at 16:51:54
In a perfect world, he would go out on loan in Europe next season – and smack in 30 goals, and be ready for us the following season.

A bit-part role on the bench and injuries like this season isn't going to progress him.

Liam Mogan
7 Posted 18/03/2025 at 16:58:40
In a perfect world, he would bang in 30 goals next season for Everton!
Jonathan Oppenheimer
8 Posted 18/03/2025 at 18:19:14
To Liam and Ian’s point, given the perfect world doesn’t exist, I think our best-case scenario is that we need him to kick on with us and not on loan, so we don’t have to splurge £30+ million to get a guaranteed starting striker.

The hope is that he stays healthy and is in top form come preseason, dukes it out with Beto for a starting spot (assuming we don’t get a decent offer for Beto), and beats out Beto for that spot. Then goes on to score a more realistic 8-12 goals given he’s still pretty raw. That way we can spend our money on pace on the wings, quality competition for right and left back, and some more dynamism in the central midfield.

The worst-case is we loan him out, he struggles to get game time, we overpay for a striker who is no better than he or Beto is, and we’re left with another year wondering why we can’t make a good buy on a striker and can’t put the ball in the net.

Robert Tressell
9 Posted 18/03/2025 at 19:27:22
Martin # 5, another Isak. That's a bold prediction. Isak is one of the worlds top strikers now along with Haaland, Kane, Mbappe, Retegui and Lewandowski.

At this stage we know that Chermiti is a good prospect but injuries have stalled his development.

At 20, it's about time for him to be playing lots of games and developing - which probably isn't going to happen next season at Everton.

So a loan at a good standard makes sense - like the PSV loan which was the making of Branthwaite.

I also think he'll become a good player - and hopefully he does hit Isak levels.

Christy Ring
10 Posted 18/03/2025 at 19:46:52
I was at the Sligo Rovers preseason game, and he really impressed me, but he's being injured ever since, that's the big worry, but he made a big difference when he came on against West Ham. He's a lot more skilful than Beto, and if he gets game time,and stays injury free for the rest of the season, we could have a top striker. I believe he'll learn a lot more playing in the Premiership than going out on loan.
Ian Bennett
11 Posted 18/03/2025 at 19:46:56
Yeah, that was my thinking.

He's probably a third or 4th choice striker at the moment, and if that's the case would benefit from a good loan.

Interesting we've been linked with that young strasbourg striker, who isn't that much older. Emanuel Esseh Emegha. 6ft 5.

Mike Gaynes
12 Posted 18/03/2025 at 20:43:42
Martin #5, Isak? Wow, and I thought I was an optimist on the kid. Nice to know I'm not the only crazy one!
Steve Shave
13 Posted 18/03/2025 at 20:53:51
Like him, here's hoping he can make it with us. I saw a few Sporting fans at the time thought it was Christmas come early getting the price they did for him, however his highlights reel for them and the B team showed a player with quick feet and surprising skill for a striker.
Hugh Jenkins
14 Posted 18/03/2025 at 21:16:54
Talk of sending him our on a year's loan (and hoping he scoresa huge number of goeals whilst out on loan) is a bit concerning, form my point of view.

He's only under contract until the end of the season after next.

If he goes on a season long loan and proves himself, next season, we will be scrabbling to try to get him to sign a new contract in his last full year under contract to us, whilst a load of other clubs will be offering him untold riches to sign for them, on a free at the end of that season.

In my view, better to keep him here and develop him, and if he does start to click, sign him up to a new contract whilst he still has 18 months to run on the old one.

Paul Ferry
15 Posted 18/03/2025 at 21:23:30
Martin, I see absolutely nothing in Chermiti in the tiny fragment of time we have had so far to suggest that he could be another Isak or even half-Isak. Nothing.

I truly hope that no one at the club thinks that there is even a semblance of this in his injury-racked time with us. How many times have high hopes led to low failure? The first thing that needs to happen before anything else is that he starts two or three games on the run.

No goals in 19 appearances for us really sounds like Isak; 6 goals in 45 career appearances really sounds like Isak.

Liam Mogan
16 Posted 18/03/2025 at 21:38:55
Hoping to see him get a goal in a competitive game at some point
Bob Parrington
17 Posted 18/03/2025 at 23:27:22
I, too, have felt that Chermiti has it in him to be a class act. Pity about his long injury lay-off. He did look at home when he came on late vs the Hammers.
Let's hope he now becomes relatively injury free and we can see him score regularly.
Ben King
18 Posted 19/03/2025 at 00:06:01
Paul #15

Spot on. Comparisons with Isak seem bizarre given he’s not even scored!

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