Jean-Kévin Augustin’s loan move must go down as the worst in Leeds United’s history. The French striker played just 48 minutes of football in three goalless appearances for the club. But despite Augustin’s lack of game time the strikers loan deal had a clause inserted which meant his transfer would be made permanent should Leeds achieve promotion to the Premier League. Leipzig assert that this clause was activated whenever Leeds United achieved promotion. Leeds however dispute this, claiming the paperwork stated a cut-off date of 30th June 2020. The season was of course curtailed due to the Coronavirus pandemic and Leeds eventually achieved promotion after the 30th June. For this reason Leeds believe they are not liable for the transfer fee.
RB Leipzig disagreed, naturally, and referred the transfer to FIFA who ruled in the German club’s favour last summer. But that wasn’t end of things with Leeds appealing the judgement in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That case is set to be heard on the 15th March but German news outlet Bild are reporting that Leeds have ‘almost no chance’ of overturning the decision. There is another sting in the tail too, Leipzig are after more money, claiming interest of 5% per year on the original transfer value. If the final judgement goes against Leeds, they will have to pay Leipzig in three instalments of just under £6 million with the first due within 45 days of the judgement. Should Leeds fail to make the payment they could have a transfer ban imposed upon them by FIFA.
Both Leeds and Leipzig relinquished any claim to Augustin and he signed for Nantes in October of 2020. By December he had made two short Ligue 1 appearances and had been separated from manager Christian Gourcuff’s training sessions to be put on an individual plan. After a litany of tests, it was discovered he was suffering from long COVID and had contracted Guillain-Barré syndrome, a condition causing muscle weakness. In Augustin’s case, this acted in particular on his calves and feet. The road to recovery was long and Augustin only returned to first team action this month after 14 months out.
Once a promising prospect, a French youth international capped at every level from Under-16s to Under-21s who was top scorer at the U19 Euros in 2016 ahead of team mate Kylian Mbappé. But following 20 goals in 67 appearances in the Bundesliga his career has stalled. With unsuccessful spells at Monoco and Leeds perhaps Jean-Kévin Augustin can now start to get his career back on track and perhaps we can move on from the saga following the CAS judgement in March. If it does go against us that £18 million could have an impact on our summer spending with the team clearly crying our for reinforcement, particularly in the centre of midfield.
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