Shani Tarashaj (born 7 February 1995) is a Swiss retired professional footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Tarashaj was born in Hausen am Albis, Switzerland. He grew up in youth teams of

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

. Tarashaj made his

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

debut on 2 August 2014, coming on as a substitute for

Alexander Merkel Alexander Merkel ( kk, Александр Меркель; born 22 February 1992) is a Kazakh professional association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for Süper Lig club Gaziantep F.K., Gaziantep and the Kazakhstan national footbal ...

in a 0–0 draw against FC Sion. Tarashaj started 2015–16 by scoring 5 goals in his first 4 games, including two braces against

FC Zurich FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

and FC Lugano. His contract with Grasshopper was renewed, extended to 2019. On 7 January 2016, Tarashaj joined English club Everton on a -year deal. He was loaned back to Grasshopper, until the end of the season so that he could complete his national service. He was loaned to German club Eintracht Frankfurt for the 2016–17 season. On 19 July 2018, Tarashaj returned to Grasshopper on a season-long loan deal with an option to make the deal permanent. Tarashaj moved to FC Emmen for a 2-season loan deal in July 2019. His loan spell was cancelled in October 2020 and on his return, he was released by Everton. On 11 January 2021, Tarashaj joined Zürich, initially linking up with the club's under–21 side. On 7 October 2022, Tarashaj retired from football due to injuries.

International career

Switzerland

Tarashaj was eligible to represent three countries on international level, either Albania, Kosovo or

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. From 2010, until 2016, Tarashaj has been part of Switzerland at youth international level, respectively has been part of all youth teams and he with these teams played 48 matches and scored 33 goals. On 18 March 2016, Tarashaj received a call-up from senior Swiss team for the friendly matches against Republic of Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. His senior debut came seven days later in the friendly match against Republic of Ireland after coming on as a substitute at 71st minute in place of

Blerim Džemaili Blerim Džemaili ( sq, Blerim Xhemaili, ; mk, Блерим Џемаили; born 12 April 1986) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays for Super League club Zürich as a midfielder. He began his career at FC Zürich, where he won the Swi ...

. On 30 May 2016, Tarashaj was named as part of the

squad for UEFA Euro 2016, but only made a single appearance, coming on as a late substitute against Romania.

Proposed Kosovo switch

In July 2016, Tarashaj after the end of UEFA Euro 2016 applied for a Kosovo passport at the Kosovan Consulate in Zürich and after receiving the passport, he attempted to switch from Switzerland to Kosovo, but this switch was rejected by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, because he had played competitive matches with Switzerland after Kosovo's admission to UEFA and FIFA.

Return to Switzerland

On 7 October 2016, Tarashaj after not being able to switch to Kosovo, returned to Switzerland, where he played with under-21 team in a

2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 football competition that determined the 11 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Poland in the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship tournament ...

match against Norway after being named in the starting line-up. Three days later, he was named as a senior team substitute in a

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

match against Andorra.

Personal life

Born and raised in

, Tarashaj is of Kosovo Albanian origin from

Prizren ) , settlement_type = Municipality and city , image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg , imagesize = 290px , image_caption = View of Prizren , image_alt = View of Prizren , image_flag ...

. In December 2019, he completes his military service in the Swiss Armed Forces. On 28 June 2021, Tarashaj enters politics by becoming a member of the Diaspora branch of the Democratic Party of Kosovo in Zürich.

Career statistics

Honours

Young Player of the Year: 2015–16

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarashaj, Shani 1995 births Living people Swiss men's footballers Switzerland men's international footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Grasshopper Club Zürich players Everton F.C. players Eintracht Frankfurt players FC Emmen players Swiss people of Kosovan descent Swiss people of Albanian descent People from Affoltern District Men's association football forwards UEFA Euro 2016 players Swiss expatriate men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in England Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Bundesliga players Swiss Super League players Eredivisie players Footballers from the canton of Zürich