The Footballer Who Cost £833,000 Per Minute

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Jean-Kevin Augustin was once one of the most coveted teenagers in football. He started his career at PSG before, despite interest from some of the biggest clubs, moving to RB Leipzig. But it was his move to Leeds United that caused the most controversy.
Three substitute appearances, three years of bitter legal disputes, and a settlement worth millions. This is the story of the strangest Premier League transfer.
Written by Seb Stafford-Bloor. Illustrated by Marco Bevilacqua.
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#psg #leedsunited #premierleague

[@listey]

With such great businessmen in charge it's no wonder Leeds are consistently such a footballing powerhouse.

[@celtic69]

Should we have spent so heavily in the past, probably not, but we lived the dream, we enjoyed the dream!

[@paulg8524]

you hate us because you aint us MOT

[@user-jv2tw1no8x]

@@celtic69and now back to familiar surroundings

[@brendanmostek4723]

I've been waiting for this ome ever since they mentioned it on the podcast

[@purpledragons1146]

​@@celtic69I wouldn't call getting to a couple of semi-finals and winning nothing living the dream. Leeds United lived the dream under Don Revie

[@airongmc6810]

The silhouette looked like sadio mané

[@luisho43]

It is Sadio

[@Sangram_Raorane]

ikrrr

[@mightymoeish]

I remember him on FIFA 19 career. Absolutely deadly mid-table legend.

[@itsactuallysanama]

I thought it was Sadio Mane for a second

[@gedwin5444]

Me too😂

[@SouthsideSox007]

Came looking for this 😂

[@guyseabrook]

Hoped I wasn't the only one 😂

[@Dropz_RSA]

Maybe it is. They just want us to argue with ourselves.

[@mrdptracey9238]

Hairline and that

[@Therealone27]

Great to see the old Tifo voiceover back even if not regularly

[@aadesh7]

Welcome to the ridiculous world of Victor Orta contracts. His legacy very much continues to haunt Leeds even after his departure with as many as 7 first team players leaving on free loans after relegation leaving Leeds with no money to recover from outgoings post relegation. He was a bizarre man and where ever he goes he of going to bring a mountain of chaos if left unchecked. A warning for Sevilla fc.

[@Eibarwoman]

Pretty sure he was behind the eventual financial disaster that was Elche which kept Eibar up despite finish Eibar being 18th in points without Elche's financial issues. Edit: As in Elche was firmly mid-table but Orta had overspent to the point the team had financial problems with inability to pay both taxes and salaries at least prior to the points penalty that kept the Basque club that was in the relegation positions up as Elche decided to pay their taxes instead of their players which led to a massive points penalty.

[@steve10]

How this guy is still working in football is a disgrace. You can guarantee he probably was paid a huge fee for orchestrating a mandatory transfer fee on the loan , he probably got money for all the players that left when relegated. Why are clubs employing someone like this , its quite clear his contract arrangements for players come with too many clauses that depend on the future of the club, its like Leeds didn't learn from spending money based on the future of the club back in the early 2000's. You shouldn't be buying any player based on future promotions or relegations , its like gambling on red or black at the casino , most times you end up losing, which seems to be the case with the clubs he is involved in.

[@NeoChaosX]

As a San Francisco 49ers fan, I'm shocked, SHOCKED that another team owned by the York family managed to drop the ball on a front office hire.

[@andrasszabo1570]

@@NeoChaosX He left months before 49ers Enterprises took over Leeds. There are too many major and minor investors to say that the York family owns Leeds United anyway.

[@backtopurrrfectagain6681]

Well, it already happened. Several Sevilla's players are going to leaves, for free agents if I'm not mistake. They can't offering good "number" to convince them to stay.

[@CJ_Yo_]

Either the Leeds hierarchy didn't think they would get promoted, or took a huge gamble on a player in decline and it didn't work out. I'm still as confused by the decision to pay that much for the player now as I was then.

[@control2XS]

That's Orta for you, he has a HUGE ego. He wouldn't have seen it as a gamble, he'd have seen it as unearthing a player everyone else had given up on and a genius move. This was by far his worst, but it's just one in a number of decisions like this that ultimately destroyed everything Bielsa built.

[@VillaBoys123]

"On the decline." He was 23 with one bad season behind him. It was idiotic and wreckless but kind of made sense. What followed with the underhand weaseling out of it was the disgrace.

[@GuinessOriginal]

The loan agreement was nonsense, the statement to sign him upon promotion should have been conditional on him playing a certain number of games and minutes

[@adrimute]

​@@GuinessOriginalBingo! Leeds need better lawyers.

[@Tom-qb1rj]

Played 40 minutes for them and finessed 25 mil from them lmao. Crazy

[@LegendNinja41]

And now enjoying life and luxury in Basel, Switzerland. W Scam.

[@nathancook2852]

@@LegendNinja41 How is it a scam? Leeds agreed to that stupid deal.

[@LegendNinja41]

@@nathancook2852 its just a meme to use ''W Scam'' in these typ of situations because they got ''finessed'' so to speak.

[@ImBarryScottCSS]

​@@LegendNinja41r/stonks

[@ItsJesssee]

Fair to say it was remarkable business by Leeds absolutely fantastic stuff more to come 🙏🏾

[@moneywalts]

Jean-Kevin Augustin couldn’t hit the heights so he swindled his way to the bag. What a legend 😭😭

[@thibautnarme6402]

Yeah that's the player's fault that his future club drudgery left him in professional limbo, without his due (that is his contract with RB or the agreed contract with Leeds). Everybody blames the player fir trying to get what they can, but nobody questions how such "professional" organizations fails to evaluate and adequately pay talent...

[@alexnils6984]

Leeds tried to take advantage of the covid to swindle of both Leipzig and Augustin. They basically waste to years of everybody's time and peace of mind for 18 millions. It's just money for the club but years of career drawbacks for a young player

[@wanmanrmy]

@@thibautnarme6402exactly, everyone complains about players wanting to leave clubs mid-contract but never criticise clubs for failing to adhere to the requirements of their contracts.

[@rayandinho978]

bros a genius ong 🥶🥶

[@NIDELLANEUM]

Imagine starting your career as being such a promising talent that you manage to outshine *Mbappé*, and then your impact on the sport is being a weird case of a player who underperformed so badly that two teams went to court to pay his wages because none of them wanted you

[@govindmurali4841]

That Stranger Transfers graphic was dope.

[@peterkwameosei-bonsu6135]

The silhouette looks very much like Sadio Mane

[@henryhealy]

I’m amazed the unpaid wages ruling went in his favour. It was agreed between Leipzig, Leeds and himself that he would sign for a third club. They didn’t just put him with the reserves and not pay him.

[@iloveshrek3591]

Probably because he was told that he wouldn’t be paid by either club when the case was ongoing. He could have stuck around unpaid or left.

[@FifaForumOnline]

Was on a new contract whilst he was at Nantes, Leeds didn’t pay him after the “contracted ended”

[@ChrisHockman]

It’s odd that they then didn’t insist that Leeds must have been owed a fee.

[@nathancook2852]

He had no choice at the time but to sign a new contract, otherwise, neither team would be paying him. I think it is completely reasonable that Leeds should pay him the agreed upon wages. That was wrong and stupid on their part to try to back out of the deal.

[@ralfrudi3963]

It was not really an agreement between him, Leipzig and Leeds. Fifa had decided that he was allowed to sign for a third club because those legal disputes take years to complete and it being unreasonable to expect a professional football player to sit at home for a couple of years which would effectively end his career. Augustin would have prefered to earn big bucks at Leeds vs. signing a much worse contract.

[@harveyholmes9533]

I think this video ignores quite an important detail which is that Augustin has since been diagnosed with long covid and a different illness which greatly impacts muscle fatigue. I think this matters because Augustin often gets painted as just a dud player who’s fluked a £25 million pay day from Leeds when in reality his career has suffered greatly from being a pawn between these two clubs and arguably resulted in the diagnoses of his illness taking so long to come to light, even as a Leeds fan I think how he’s been treated as a result of this poor business has been poor on both clubs accounts.

[@jtaco4101]

Nah dudes a bum, he's found his level in the swiss league.

[@galloyhoy]

The combination of Stafford-Bloor brains and Devine audiovisuals cannot be beaten.

[@MrTrizz]

Is it me or did this story not get much media coverage at the time?

[@listey]

"At the time" of what? The big news was when there was the court cases and they certainly got a lot of coverage.

[@bababababababa6124]

Nah just you, even my mother knows about this 😂😂😂

[@nickwall2497]

He also had a bout of long covid followed by post viral guillain barre syndrome. A friend of mine passed away from it 8 years ago

[@seandelap8587]

It must be hard for a footballer to be caught up in a tug of war between clubs that don't want you then again if you're being paid a fortune for it you're not really going to care all that much for it are you

[@WOOOPdoctorFROGhere]

when I saw the title of the video I thought it was going to be about Henri Saivet. Surely that was one of those signings that was either just a favour to an agent, or more likely to move questionable money from one shell company to another, like Abramovich used to do signing players the club had absolutely no intention of ever using

[@darylayertey6925]

Hi Guillen Barre diagnosis is an important bit of context to the story

[@TabletsAndTemples]

You guys should do a story on Mathieu Flamini becoming a billionaire while sitting on the bench for Arsenal.

[@user-vs9yl4lp6e]

He was quite good backup in ac milan

[@tompcd1189]

Didn't rly sit on the bench though

[@TabletsAndTemples]

@@tompcd1189 In 13/14 he only had 23 starts out of a possible ~50 games in all competitions. He was Arsenal's 12th choice by Premiere league starts. But then down to 20 and 19 starts the next two seasons.

[@tompcd1189]

@@TabletsAndTemples 153 in total for his first spell, and then 93 in his second spell, most caps at any club he's ever played at lol

[@TabletsAndTemples]

@@tompcd1189 totally, not denying that. But he was definitely an off the bench player.

[@mindriot69]

That is one of those awesomely bizarre stories that comes up in sports. You couldn’t make this stuff up. ✌🏽❤️⚽️🍄

[@barnaclefelching4079]

This made me feel unwell, loved it

[@leonwilkinson8623]

Who thought it was sadio mane from the thumbnail😂

[@kudzaisd]

l thought it was Mendy

[@KoalaJofficial]

I terrorised people with this man in Fifa 19 when he was in RB Leipzig 😂

[@user-fs1iw4ll3r]

Jesus thought about he is sadio mane before coming into the video😂

[@theLonelyBandit6984]

I strongly believe that he staying at Leeds would have been of some use, especially in their second and their seasons where they struggled for goals and Bamford for paralyzingly injured.

[@thztan7492]

Nice untold story. Unique case indeed👍

[@Roshmore7]

Umm is it just me or do y’all thought it was Mane from the shadow in the intro?😅

[@veritasexperience7765]

Mad saga. Brilliant story!

[@steven_uk]

The audio "If you enjoyed this..." at the end of the video is far louder than the rest of the video. You should check your volume levels.

[@evilotis01]

and here was me thinking it'd be Seth Johnson

[@KakarotOwns]

Imagine a 24m payday for basically doing nothing, Augustine really did complete football, who cares if doesn't win anything else in football lol.

[@MrSniperfox29]

He did do something, he played for other teams and presumably was paid by them at the same time. He wants Leeds to pay him wages when he wasn't even at the club

[@jamessudlow]

@@MrSniperfox29 he wants them to pay the wages for a contract they illegally cut short

[@benarmstrong9383]

Wow! What a story!

[@RL-]

Immediately thought back to your Henri Saivet video 😬

[@JiTiAr35]

As Dean of 442oon becomes a Muezzin 🎶🎵SAAAAAAUDI PROOOO LEEEEEEAGUE🎶🎵

[@randomcon123]

I wonder how much legal cost had Leeds incurred to eventually settle on that 15.5 million fee

[@Strangegloves]

anyone who wants a more in depht video on this i would deffo reccomed hitc sevens vid...

[@ianbenjamin7647]

Not me thinking it was Mané Lmao😂

[@007Palatino]

For a second I thought the silhouette was Sadio Mane

[@andrewforeman2168]

The only thong I could never get my around with the Jean-Kévin Augustin situation was why Leeds were made to pay him his full 5-year deal when he was only at the club for 6 months in total in the first place. Whether Leeds were obligated to buy him or not it does seem pretty bizarre to me at least that they had to settle the entire length of his contract. Especially when wasn't this done when he had already left the club? Because by the same token couldn't another player playing for another club leave that club a 12 months into a 5-year deal but turn around and say, "Even though I'm leaving of my own accord and am spearheading this move myself I want you to pay me all the wages I would of banked if I would of seen my contract out to it's natural conclusion."

[@memofromessex]

You forgot to add that he got hit with Long COVID, so his career is likely to be financially curtailed, if not entirely.

[@seemourbutts6679]

Long covid 😂😂 seriously have a look at the list of symptoms, see if you can find out how they diagnose it and then see if you still think it’s real

[@Booplesnoot123]

@@seemourbutts6679 i have it and can assure you it's very real

[@camlawlett4758]

I was about to say this! There's a great article on the Athletic that explains the medical side of his decline. Super sad stuff

[@seemourbutts6679]

@@Booplesnoot123 ok well what are your symptoms and how were you diagnosed?

[@Booplesnoot123]

@@seemourbutts6679 surprisingly enough I’m not keen to disclose detailed personal medical information to a stranger but if you’re really interested there is a mass of research and literature online you can read

[@picasso8757]

I like the stranger things animation at the beginning 😂

[@mukwesamwanza1511]

You should do the emiliano sala vs cardiff city

[@ImBarryScottCSS]

Certified classic case of don't hate the playa.

[@pharrellarts3315]

S2G Fans Know This Legend

[@M4NA5]

At first I thought it’s João Félix.

[@kraspeed]

Was the 90k/week salary estimated/set by the court? Cause there's no way Leipzig paid him that much nor would a championship club like Leeds offer such salary even after promotion. 90k for a squad player is a reach even for top table teams and even though in player vs club situations I rather support the player, but him demanding 24mil from Leeds feels like a scam

[@lukedardo9406]

Leeds and Augustin had already an agreement in case the transfer turned out permanent, which at the end is what happened. The 90k /week is the wage of that agreement I guess, and not what he was receiving at Leipzig

[@Geeoorggee]

great story

[@SamButler22]

He failed to get into the Leeds team during his loan for being "lazy" and that's why they didn't want him permanently. Didn't it turn out that he had long covid though?

[@LamontGranquist]

He signed with Nantes in Oct 2020 and wasn't announced as having Long COVID until Mar 2021, so his 'lazy' period with Leeds was sometime between Jan-Oct 2020. He could have still caught COVID then and been transferred to Nantes while still suffering from it (with the medical evaluation by Nantes not being very thorough at all?) but the timing suggests he caught it after leaving Leeds. And as the video suggests he was faltering at Leipzig in 2018-19 and loaned to Monaco in 2019 where he couldn't compete for minutes. That was all before COVID existed and sounds like he caught the 'lazy' bug a couple years earlier.

[@lukedardo9406]

Deals are deals. They might not want him, but if the deal was to turn the transfer permanent for 18mil in case of promotion, there is nothing that can be done about that. I don't know who has done the negotiations at Leeds, but it's definitely his fault

[@SamButler22]

@@lukedardo9406 deals are deals. Leeds are right to argue for the exact wording, Leipzig are right to argue for the spirit of the deal. Lawyers who specialise in contracts exist for a reason, and I am not one.

[@BLOODSHO7]

It was a long term illness Alfie of hitc 7s did a full 30 minute documentary on this with everything examined in it worth a watch for sure

[@wolfie7669]

I'm surprised this happened to Leeds of all teams, they've always been really good with finances 🙄

[@Dropz_RSA]

😂

[@VDR2612]

Mpaypal: oh are you challenging me?

[@t.robinson4774]

Wasn’t Jean-Kévin Augustin subsequently diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome?

[@micgreenson7308]

Though it was mane at the start in the shadow pic 😅

[@r3drav3n]

Amazing, its almost not worth promotion with contracts like that flying around!

[@ashleylawrance3793]

Has he got the whole 5 years wages even though he's still got 2 years left? Surely the court would be thinking Leeds would offload him and therefore not be paying those 2 years of wages.

[@ishan07104]

Bro that fifa 19 player and s2g career mode with leeds💀💀💀💀

[@rayandinho978]

Augustin is a genius ong ❤

[@jessepinkman7417]

I thought Mane at Bayern

[@whiteace_t.k.o8060]

Before I watch tht silhouette looks like Manè

[@davesondave101]

Thought it was abt Mane cause of the silhouette on the thumbnail😅

[@Jayfive276]

Given Augustin has found his level at Basel I'd say both RB and Leeds dodged a bullet.

[@nathancook2852]

Except that Leeds is going to have to pay him while they get nothing out of him.

[@tomw6947]

​@@nathancook2852Then the player should be returned to Leeds, seems crazy you have to buy a player, yet he can't/won't join the club.

[@kickdowndoors]

seems like Leeds definitely got shot tbh

[@nifemi_o]

@@tomw6947 Didnt you watch the video? it wasnt his choice not to join the club, they dont want him.

[@tomw6947]

@@nifemi_o Not surprised when you turn up to training late, and won't put the effort in on or off the pitch.

[@Wilson-md4bv]

Music: Jobii - Goldo

[@living_craft]

Augustin, the great businessman

[@rajanaggarwal3371]

Is he playin for Basel or just at Basel now?

[@MayorSom]

Suffice to say, He’s got that elite Mbappe representative😅

[@hadierturk6098]

Oh my god, this is like fighting for anti-custody of the player 😂

[@davidjones1709]

skilful spelt wrong. you guys need a proofreader :) - otherwise great vid as always.

[@tredaviousbowser7931]

The shadow image on the thumbnail looked like Sadio Mane

[@koofreti]

"Skillful" is misspelled somewhere in there. Great fun video tho.

[@oscarcastro9316]

Who thought it was Sadio Mané in the cover? 😂

[@lungalunga1470]

Reminds of Renato Sanchez the guy is just not a goid player but somehow he has convinced Portugal, bayern and others that he is a good player

[@bigbearrecordingstudio7921]

Perfect timing for my lunch break.

[@mfundonkosi6927]

Damn!

[@mhsteamupbro]

Title made me think it was a standard Saudi contract

[@BonelessB0n3r]

I know this one, Goldrbidge once paid a guy 7mil pounds a week

[@tehonlyFreeman]

Lol this is especially hilarious because like every player, I remember he was massively hyped by leeds fans 😂

[@vsolxr6248]

On the thumbnail that looks like mané

[@algfourty9185]

And we thought Leeds' financial mismanagement ended when they plumetted down the divisions as the poster child of over-reaching your means 🤦‍♀

[@prodjame5]

i thought the thumbnail was mane LOL

[@jeffreychen2099]

I thought the silhouette was Sadio Mane

[@medbro50]

I totally thought it was mane from thel thumbnail

[@norneaernourn8240]

Of course the courts would side with Leipzig. It's so obvious Leeds didn't like that they saw and wanted out, but didn't act in time.

[@alexkrycek3359]

Fantastic business Leeds 🎉

[@SZY_]

Jean-Kevin Augustin really traumatised English football media coz I swear the story gets told every year 💀💀💀

[@henrymarks1632]

Never seen it before

[@MrReese]

Every year, you mean since...2022? So literally once so far? :D

[@Tom-qb1rj]

Tf are you talking about

[@lukemullet]

@@henrymarks1632 First I'd heard of the case too.

[@00dude3]

the worst PL transfer of all time is going be brought up yes

[@BabsW]

That silhouette looks like Sadio Mané

[@djiogangtefouet4972]

Anyone else thought of Sadio Mane after seeing the template?

[@TetaBall]

I'm pretty sure there's a video already on this same topic?

[@jamessudlow]

??? Do you think people own topics?

[@PranavJoy]

0:57 skilful*

[@sadsixersfan.]

Hairline in the thumbnail made me think it was mane 💀

[@monkeydluffy736]

lol Mane silhouette

[@kavinkacreates]

I thought it was Usain Bolt when I saw the silhouette 😂

[@eldhojohnmenachery7107]

Me thinking it was sadio mane😂

[@kavinkacreates]

@@eldhojohnmenachery7107 😅

[@dcchannel4847]

@@eldhojohnmenachery7107same here

[@abhishekpattanaik27]

Who saw the silhouette & thought it was Sadio Mane?

[@StillAwesome21]

I'm here before they change Skillfull to Skillful. 👋🏽

[@AB-wr8vl]

Obliged surely not 'obligated'

[@jamessudlow]

obligated is a word

[@chicosticks]

Hairline had me thinking it was Mané

[@KatimaGaming]

No matter. Brother got paid.

[@miguel261998]

Im spaniard and I didn't know the case. Now I can only 😂😂😂😂😂

[@DickBeech]

Leeds, that.