Victor Orta sends message to player agent about major January deal
Victor Orta has paid tribute to the agent of Jean-Kevin Augustin after the French striker became a Leeds United player on Monday.
Augustin signed on an initial loan deal that could become permanent if Leeds get promoted at the end of the season.
Talking in an interview on the Leeds website, Orta revealed that Augustin was a player they had been following for a long time.
“We always monitor lots of leagues and we knew Jean-Kevin following his appearances with Paris Saint Germain in the youth league and in the Under-19 European Championship when he was amazing,” Orta said.
“He reached a high level, he was a player we highlighted and we followed him during his period with other teams.”
Orta said that he had been told by Augustin’s agent there was only a “small chance” of signing him in January but that changed through the window and a deal was concluded after the agent contacted Leeds again.
Orta paid tribute not only to the agent for facilitating the deal but also to Augustin himself, who stayed true to Leeds despite interest from other clubs at the last minute.
“For me I would like to say that I’m extremely grateful to the player’s agent Meissa N’diaye,” Orta said. “He was really effective in his work and it is a pleasure to work with people like this.
“I also need to say thank you to the player, because in the last minutes when people began to know he was available, a lot of teams began to call him, but he was really honest and gave us our word that he would sign for Leeds United and now he is our player.”
Leeds fans will love this. Fans want players who want to play for the club and as soon as the potential deal was in the public domain, Augustin made it clear he wanted to sign for Leeds by liking many tweets from the club’s fanbase.
The deal was concluded fairly quickly from when Augustin’s name was first mentioned on Friday by the Athletic and it sounds like both agent and player made this happen.
Marcelo Bielsa said it was unlikely that Augustin would be involved tonight in the game against Millwall but the player should be paraded in front of the Elland Road crowd.
Hopefully, it will spur Patrick Bamford on to re-discover his shooting boots.
In other Leeds United news, Jim White delivers instant verdict on Augustin; new Leeds striker sends Twitter message to fans