Everton‘s hopes of signing talented Switzerland international Xherdan Shaqiri has been given a massive boost as Bundesliga outfit Schalke have withdrawn their interest in the Inter Milan winger, Metro Sport reports.
The 23-year-old has been linked with a transfer to the Barclays Premier League for over six months as he turned down interest from Liverpool in order to complete a switch to Serie A from Bayern Munich last January [via talkSPORT].
However, Shaqiri has failed to establish himself in the team under Roberto Mancini at the San Siro and is expected to call time on his stint in Italy at some point this summer as he has been in talks with several clubs including Stoke City.
After negotiations over a shock move to the Britannia Stadium broke down earlier in the summer, it was rumoured that Schalke were in the driving seat to bring the Shaqiri back to Germany, but following comments from manager Andre Breitenreiter, it now appears that the Toffees are favourites for the winger’s signature:
“Shaqiri is not of interest to us at the moment. We don’t even have meetings with him on our schedule,” the Schalke boss told German publication Bild.
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Shaqiri could be tempted by the chance at a fresh start in England as in 15 Serie A appearances from January onwards, he managed just one goal and registered two assists and will need to be playing regularly in order to keep his place in the national team ahead of next summer’s European Championships.