Normally, you can just write an ISO to an USB stick and boot your installation. This is not possible with VMWare. Thanks to nimdati.com for the howto! Another explaination can be found on the VMWare site
First, let's install the packages needed.
apt install syslinux
I assume that your usbstick is sdb. You could see this in your dmesg.
Create the partition
fdisk /dev/sdb
Enter d to delete partitions until they are all deleted.
Enter n to create a primary partition 1 that extends over the entire disk.
Enter t to set the type to an appropriate setting for the FAT32 file system, such as c.
Enter a to set the active flag on partition 1.
Enter w to write the partition table and exit the application.
Make a filesystem.
mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n USB /dev/sdb1
Install the Syslinux bootloader on the USB flash drive.
syslinux /dev/sdb1
cat /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin > /dev/sda
Mount the USB stick and the ISO file.
mkdir /usb
mount /dev/sda1 /usb
mkdir /esx
mount -o loop your_installer.iso /esx
Copy the installer to the USB disk.
cp -r /esx/* /usb
mv /usb/isolinux.cfg /usb/syslinux.cfg
Change the file /usb/syslinux.cfg the line APPEND -c boot.cfg to APPEND -c boot.cfg -p 1
unmount /usb and /esx
umount /usb
umount /esx
boot your server using the USB-Stick and UEFI