Jean-Kevin Augustin is finally smiling again - The Square Ball 20/10/22

LE GRAND KEV

Written by: Patrick Gunn

Remember Jean-Kevin Augustin? He’s back, and scoring goals.

Le Grand Kevin has been an easy target following his infamously awful loan move from RB Leipzig to Leeds. An ironic role for a man who found easy targets excessively hard to come by, some might say, but amid the donkey-arse-banjo jokes and the undeniably funny image of Victor Orta hiding from the Red Bull bailiffs (they give you broken wiiiings), it was easy to forget that, behind it all, there was a human being. One who probably didn’t find it all so funny.

Augustin joined Leeds in January 2020 with an undeniable sense of fanfare. Marcelo Bielsa’s side were on their usual track — dominating games but wasting the chances they were creating — and JKA was meant to provide the final piece of the promotion puzzle. A PSG youth product, snapped up by Leipzig, who had just finished third in the Bundesliga, he had struggled to establish a place on loan at Monaco in the first half of the season, but this was just the Championship. What kind of wizardry had Orta weaved to convince him to muck around here?

The reality was that Augustin was already on a downward spiral by the time he rocked up at Elland Road; a spiral that would last a lot longer than first anticipated when he was left out of the matchday squad against Middlesbrough after his initial cameos off the bench. He had scored his last goal in October 2019, in a 2-1 cup win against Marseille. He had played his last ninety minutes a week before his arrival in West Yorkshire (it remains the last time he has completed a full game). Reports of Bielsa’s frustration at his lack of fitness — both match and general — were widespread, and the fact Leeds had agreed a deal to sign him permanently became increasingly worrying. The outlook was bleak for a player who once held so much promise.

Two years later, the picture was no better for Jean-Kevin. After two seasons with Nantes in Ligue 1, featuring a grand total of fifteen appearances and not a sniff of a goal to speak of, he was released. Considering his frequent injuries, and the amount of risk involved in taking on a player with such a poor track record, it could have signalled the end of a career that had nosedived faster than the pound under Liz Truss.

But just as things seemed at their worst, Augustin was offered an unexpected lifeline.

FC Basel have been through their own tough times recently, struggling to reclaim the top spot in Swiss football after dominating for so long and building a reputation among wider Europe. The RotBlau have not lifted a league title since 2017, however, and the fans’ patience has been wearing ever thinner. Star striker Arthur Cabral’s winter departure left them in need of goals, and their scattergun approach to replacing him included a gamble on our tragic hero. If they could somehow get him firing again, there was no doubt that JKA would be a dangerous prospect in Switzerland, but it was a story we had heard before. Both Leeds and Nantes had imagined they could save Augustin (and reap the benefits as a result); both were left bemoaning their mistake. When Basel announced in July their new signing had already suffered ligament damage and would miss the start of the season, sceptical eyebrows began raising.

By mid-September, however, they were raised purely in surprise.

Augustin’s two goals against Grasshopper Zurich in September were his first for almost three years. The first, a simple tap in following a moment in the Grasshopper backline strangely reminiscent of Kiko Casilla and Liam Cooper in the play-off semi-final against Derby, was the kind of goal an out-of-form striker dreams of. The smile on Augustin’s face, as wide as the empty net he had just rolled the ball into, said everything it needed. The huge hug from Canadian winger Liam Millar, before the rest of the team flocked over, was just as poignant. Nine minutes later, he was at it again. Felled in the box, Augustin took responsibility for the penalty, casually dinking a floating Panenka away from the sprawling goalkeeper. Arms out in celebration, it was as if he’d never been away. The confidence oozed out of the finish like melted Emmental from a Cordon Bleu.

Another penalty followed soon after in the cup against FC Aarau, this one smashed past the keeper before an understated flex of the arm to the visiting fans. In the five games that have followed, the goals have dried up somewhat, as Augustin has been used more sparingly by a Basel side struggling for form domestically and internationally, but, for the moment, it seems unlikely that he will have to wait three years for the next one.

Although things came to an ignominious end between JKA and LUFC, it’s hard to view the player with anything other than a sense of sympathy. The fanfare with which he was received was not a result of his own hubris; instead it was a response to the need for a prolific striker, and the belief that was what Augustin represented. In the years prior to his time at Elland Road, he had the world at his feet, before the wings he flew on were mercilessly clipped by a sport that has very little time for sentiment (something we know very well as fans of this club). Leeds, thankfully, were able to rediscover something of the former glory we had enjoyed before our downfall. Hopefully, with this new start, Jean-Kevin Augustin can begin to rediscover his own.