UEFA Euro 2016 demonstrated the astonishing squad depth of the French national team. Even though they narrowly missed out on winning the tournament after suffering a bitter defeat at the hands of Portugal in the final, one would feel the French have a lot of reasons to be optimistic as they have a team which could be one of the strong contenders for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
To make things even better for the French, they have a good set of young players coming through the ranks and it was the Les Blues who were crowned champions in the U-19 European championship.
French forward Jean-Kevin Augustin was the top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals and his opening goal in the final against Italy says a lot about his calibre. He has caught the eye of many scouts after his impressive performances in the tournament and few of the top clubs in Europe are keeping a close watch on him.
The 19-year-old who currently plays his club football for French champions PSG brings a lot to the table for someone of his age.
Background
Jean-Kevin Augustin was born in Paris, on 16 June 1997 and is of Haitian descent. He started his youth career at FO Plaisir in the year 2004. A couple of years later, he moved to Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt (A.C.B.B). In 2009, PSG’s youth academy signed the youngster after they were impressed with him.
Augustin played for PSG at various youth levels and was promoted to the PSG B team in 2014. The youngster scored 12 goals in 26 appearances for the side. In 2015 February he moved to the senior team and made his professional debut on 8 April 2015 against AS Saint-Etienne in the Coupe De France semi-final.
He impressed a lot in the preseason ahead of the 2015-16 season as he scored 5 goals in 5 appearances. However, Laurent Blanc didn’t give him enough game time and Augustin could only make just 13 appearances last season. He started only four of those games and most of his appearances were after the 80-minute mark.
He has found the back of the net for PSG only once, in a 4-1 victory over Troyes at Parc des Princes. He has scored 12 goals in 13 appearances for the French U-19 team and was the winner of the golden player award in the UEFA European U-19 football championship.
Strengths
The teenager who is nicknamed ‘JK’, is blessed with all the attributes that an excellent centre-forward should have. The 19-year-old has good pace and acceleration and using them he could leave defenders for the dead. He also possesses the tenacity and strength that a typical number nine should have and so doesn't get bullied off the ball easily.
Using his height which is almost 6 ft, he wins a lot of aerial duels. Augustin is naturally a centre-forward, but he can play out wide on both flanks as he has a few tricks in his bag that would help him to get past defenders and provide good service into the box.
"My play is based on explosiveness," he was quoted saying. "Between training sessions I work in the weights room."
He has scored only once for PSG but to be fair to him, he has not been given enough opportunities to demonstrate his ruthlessness in front of goal. The majority of his appearances have been from the bench and on those occasions, he came onto the pitch in the last 10 minutes or so.
But scoring six goals for the French team in the UEFA European U-19 championship has underlined his goalscoring abilities. His positioning and movement are also really good, and he often drags defenders towards him freeing up space for his teammates.
Weakness
It is criminal to pick out weaknesses from a 19-year old’s game but Augustin’s inability to break into PSG’s starting eleven last season is questionable. However, when he had Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani ahead of him in the pecking order, it is never easy to be a regular starter.
Ibrahimovic’s departure to Manchester United has certainly not done Augustin any favours as the former was replaced by Jese Rodriguez who arrived from Real Madrid. At such a young age, he still has a lot to learn and lot to improve, and whether he has the consistency and composure to be a success on the big stage is something that only time will tell.
“Unfortunately, we have many attackers so he’s not had a great deal of time on the field," PSG left back Maxwell said about the youngster. "But each time that he’s come onto the park, he’s shown his qualities."
Bottomline
Inspite of all the positives, Augustin still has a long way to go to become a world-class centre-forward and as time has shown, there are always promising youngsters but many of them could only become average players later on in their careers. Augustin needs game time and whether Unai Emery would show confidence in the youngster is something to be sceptical about.
It seems like the youngster is not going anywhere in this transfer window and one would wonder if that is a good decision. Moving on loan to a smaller club would guarantee minutes on the pitch and definitely catalyse his progress as a player.
The decision making of a footballer of the pitch is important like his performances on it and hopefully, Augustin will make the right decisions and someday become a key figure in French football.
