Cost £24.5m: Orta endured Leeds nightmare with flop who’s now a free agent.Leeds United dipped into the market during the recent summer transfer window to bolster their squad with a host of new additions for Daniel Farke.
Largie Ramazani, Manor Solomon, Isaac Schmidt, Joe Rothwell, Joe Rodon, Jayden Bogle, Alex Cairns, and Ao Tanaka were all snapped up by the Whites.
The West Yorkshire side, who lost Georginio Rutter, Glen Kamara, Archie Gray, and Crysencio Summerville, have made those moves in the hope that they will contribute to a promotion-winning season this term.
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Leeds last won promotion from the Championship in the 2019/20 campaign and one of Victor Orta’s signings that year – Jean-Kevin Augustin – turned out to be a significant flop.
Jean-Kevin Augustin’s Leeds career
The Whites got to the January transfer window of that season and decided that they wanted to add more firepower to the group to ensure that they finished the job and secured a place in the Premier League.
Orta eventually finalised an expensive deal to sign Jean-Kevin Augustin from RB Leipzig on loan until the end of the season, with an obligation to make it permanent for £18m in the summer if they were promoted.
The Championship side, who went on to win the title, also had to cover his wages during that loan spell, which were reportedly in excess of £75k-per-week.
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Unfortunately, though, Augustin fell out of favour under Marcelo Bielsa fairly quickly and only made three league appearances, totalling 48 minutes of action.
Despite the team winning the division and earning promotion to the Premier League, Leeds pulled out of their £18m ‘obligation’ to sign him permanently.
Fifa, having been contacted by Leipzig, then ordered them to pay £24.5m for the striker, due to the £18m fee and his proposed five-year contract on £93k-per-week, which would make him the current top earner at Elland Road.
The Whites had attempted to appeal the decision but eventually opted to withdraw their protestations earlier this year, meaning that they had to spend £24.5m on a loan player they did not sign permanently.
Where Jean-Kevin Augustin is now
Augustin, who turned 27 this summer, is currently a free agent after being released by Swiss Super League giants Basel at the end of last season.
The French attacker played 11 times for Nantes after his nightmare spell in England before completing a move to Basel for the 2022/23 campaign.
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He scored eight goals in 51 appearances for the Swiss outfit and missed a whopping 26 matches through injury across his two seasons in Switzerland, which may be why it has been a struggle for him to find a new club.
Augustin, who had scored 20 goals in 67 games for Leipzig before his loan move to Leeds, was a big nightmare for Orta and the Whites for a multitude of reasons.
