Jean-Kevin Augustin: £18m hanging on the forward who became nobody’s player - The Athletic 28/1/22
By Phil Hay Jan 28, 2022 96
The deal was so secretive that when Jean-Kevin Augustin
landed at Leeds-Bradford Airport, a car was ready to collect him directly from
the private jet. He was driven to the DoubleTree Hilton hotel in the city
centre, holing up in two adjoining rooms. His medical took place there and
then, away from prying eyes.
Leeds United had their hands on him but even as they began
completing the formalities, they were paranoid about a counter-bid from
Manchester United and worried that Augustin might yet slip through their
fingers. A concerted effort was made to disguise the fact that a loan deal with
RB Leipzig of Germany was as good as done.
This was in January 2020, during the final week of that
winter’s transfer window, and the last time anyone treated Augustin like
royalty; the last time anyone looked at him like clubs look at a valuable
commodity.
Augustin has played just 95 minutes of senior football in the
two years since and, to all intents and purposes, disappeared from the map; a
one-time darling of Paris Saint-Germain’s academy fading from view. He has a
contract at another Ligue 1 club, Nantes, but it runs out this summer and it
would take a leap of faith on the part of the club to invest in keeping him in
their corner of north west France. His track record, for a variety of reasons,
is one of prolonged stagnation.
Leeds and Leipzig washed their hands of Augustin long ago,
but neither has been able to forget about him.
The two clubs are engaged in a legal dispute concerning the
now 24-year-old striker and in March, the matter of who contractually owned
Augustin in the summer of 2020 will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for
Sport (CAS).
Neither of Leeds and Leipzig wanted him then and neither one
wants to pay a price for him now. Neither club wants to accept that, at the end
of that 2019-20 season, Augustin belonged to them.
Some £18 million is hanging on a forward who became nobody’s
player.
The move to Leeds, from Augustin’s perspective, signalled a
breakdown of everything: his body, his confidence, his spirit. He was a late
signing in the window, borrowed for the second half of the Championship season,
and one Leeds did not plan to make.
Up until the end of that December, they had Eddie Nketiah of
Arsenal on what was originally a year’s loan. Arsenal put the cat among the
pigeons by deciding to recall Nketiah early after just two starts among 19
league appearances, setting in motion the move for Augustin.
Deep analysis of Augustin was carried out by Leeds’
recruitment team, and head coach Marcelo Bielsa approved the bid personally but
the failure of the Frenchman’s move to Elland Road raised an issue the club
still pay attention to today.
as well short of the fitness levels Bielsa expects. He had
been on loan at Monaco for the first half of 2019-20, but the training and the
regime in France was not the same. Bielsa blooded him slowly, but when he did
Augustin pulled a hamstring. He made three appearances as a substitute that
February totalling 48 minutes and then never played for Leeds again.
That the striker had pedigree was not in dispute.
He had made just shy of 100 first-team appearances for PSG and Leipzig from 2015-19, scoring 20 goals, and in the summer of 2016 he helped France win the European Under-19 Championship, top-scoring in the tournament with six, one ahead of a lad named Kylian Mbappe. Bielsa said publicly that, in peak form, Augustin would be worth in the region of £40 million and the £90,000-a-week wages he was on at Leipzig reflected that but, in England, he was always a step behind the rest of Bielsa’s squad.
COVID-19 then further interrupted his season a
month-and-a-half after Augustin’s move and in the interim, he worked to get
himself over his injury. But when full training resumed, the intensity of it
caught up with him again. His failure to cope began to grate on Bielsa and
frustrated some of the other players.
Leeds secured Premier League promotion at the end of that
season, but by then Augustin was back in France and no longer involved. Bielsa
made it clear to the board that retaining the Frenchman would be a mistake.
Augustin, in short, was a footballer he could not work with.
The problem was that the loan agreement with Leipzig included
a clause stating Leeds would complete a permanent deal for Augustin if they
went up that season, for a fee of around £18 million. It was an obligation not
an option, and the basis of a long-term contract with Augustin had been discussed
in advance.
Muddying the waters was the fact three months of lockdown
delayed the end of the English season until the July and the end date of the
obligation had elapsed in the June — after the season was meant to end but
before Leeds’ promotion was confirmed with two games to go in that extended
campaign.
Leipzig asked Leeds to alter the contract. They declined. As
far as the hierarchy at Elland Road were concerned, they were no longer legally
required to take him.
With £18 million at stake, Leipzig launched legal action and
also filed a complaint with FIFA. Last year, football’s world governing body
ruled in the Germans’ favour, instructing Leeds to pay up. Leeds appealed that
decision and took the case to CAS, insisting on fighting their corner.
Augustin, meanwhile, was in Nantes, a thousand miles away
from the action and a pawn in a battle far above his head.
The refusal of both Leeds and Leipzig to accept ownership of
Augustin in that pandemic-shortened summer of 2020 meant Augustin was
effectively without a club.
He held a contract at Leipzig running to the end of this
season, but their view was that he had signed for Leeds. Leeds refused to
accept or register him and as the impasse persisted towards the transfer
deadline that October, FIFA gave Augustin permission to join another club on a
free transfer. The alternative was to leave his career on hold while the
dispute between Leeds and Leipzig played out — a dispute he had no influence
over and which was likely to run for years.
Despite the mess, and the fact Augustin had missed
pre-season, Nantes were persuaded to offer him a two-year contract.
“He was not a player they were following but his was a name
which was still spoken about in France,” says Jean-Marcel Boudard, a football
writer with area newspaper Ouest-France. “It was a bet, an opportunity to
seize, which the club have often done in the past. He was a reinforcement.”
As with Leeds, Augustin could not get himself going.
In his first season, he appeared only three times off the
bench for a combined 33 minutes, none of them after the November. By the end of
it, he had been sent to train with the reserves. Physically he was behind the
conditioning levels of Nantes’ senior group and there was obvious lethargy in
his play.
Pierre Aristouy, who worked with Augustin as reserves coach, told Ouest-France “his head wanted to do (what he was being asked to do) but his body would not follow. Everything was very hard. He had motor problems. We had the feeling that everything was going too fast for him. He was very unhappy about it and it was very complex for us.”
Nantes provided some context for Augustin’s demotion by
announcing publicly that he was suffering from long COVID.
In an article published last week, journalist Boudard
revealed the forward subsequently developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, an illness
affecting the nervous system. It can cause numbness and weakness in the limbs,
and the diagnosis revealed what was holding Augustin back. “This explains his problems,”
Boudard says. “At the summer resumption (of training), he could not run more
than five kilometres.”
With knowledge of his medical condition, Nantes put together
a recovery programme aimed at reviving Augustin’s old speed and responsiveness.
The player, who had reached a low ebb mentally, took on a physical trainer and
a private chef. His attitude was encouraging and Nantes liked the way Augustin
carried himself while working with their reserve squad; a supportive voice
rather than a Billy-big-time presence, contrary to his reputation for being
difficult to manage.
“Players and coaches are unanimous on his personality,”
Boudard says. “He played the role of big brother and he has never created a
problem. Everyone says he’s different from the image people have of him. The
story in Nantes is really different. For me, his real start is now. Now we can
really judge him.”
In late November, Nantes eased Augustin gently into a reserve
game against Trelissac. It was his first official match in a week shy of 12
months.
Three reserves starts that saw him get around an hour each, a
few more minutes every time, followed before head coach Antoine Kombouare
sanctioned Augustin’s return to the first-team squad. Ten minutes away to Nice
two weeks ago was the first time Augustin had kicked a ball in a senior fixture
since November 28, 2020. He was then an 86th-minute substitute in a 4-2 win
over Lorient on Sunday.
Shoots of recovery were apparent and hope springs eternal for
a footballer most of Europe had forgotten about.
At no stage of the disagreement between Leeds and Leipzig has
either club conceded any ground.
Leipzig want Leeds to pay the agreed £18 million for
Augustin. Leeds hope to avoid any liability. The fight is entrenched. When
Leipzig revealed on Twitter that FIFA had backed them last year, they did so
with this caveat: “The judgement is not yet final. The justification is still
pending.” Leeds were bound to appeal.
Privately, Leeds understand Leipzig’s argument: that, in good
faith, the clause governing a permanent transfer upon promotion in that 2019-20
season meant a permanent transfer whenever promotion arrived (and nobody at the
point where the loan was first agreed had any idea COVID-19 was about to
intervene the way it did).
But their defence is based on the fact that when they reached
the Premier League on July 17, courtesy of a West Bromwich Albion loss to
Huddersfield Town, the clause was no longer in date. At no stage had FIFA
ordered clubs to adjust or extend clauses of that nature. Leeds themselves had
been a victim of the delayed finish. An £8 million option to buy loanee Jack
Harrison from Manchester City elapsed before they went up, forcing the club to
commit several more millions to eventually signing him last summer.
Though FIFA found in favour of Leipzig, its ruling was not
final and the CAS has now set aside March 15 to settle the question of which
club, in 2020, legally held Augustin under contract.
Evidence will be heard in a single day and CAS’s decision
should be binding, drawing a line under the matter.
