The presence of Jean-Kevin Augustin in Goal’s list of the 50 best prospects in world footballrepresents evidence of the commitment PSG’s Qatari owners have made to ensuring local talent is given a chance at one of Europe’s most glamorous clubs.
"It's a pleasure to be in the 50 top prospects in the world”, the 18-year-old told Goal smiling but with a tinge of embarrassment. “This is very flattering to me."
Originally from Plaisir, the forward arrived at PSG in 2009 after a stint with AC Boulogne-Billancourt, a team located close to the Parc des Princes, and the departure of Moussa Dembele to Fulham helped him to gain his opportunity at Under-17 level.
Since then, ‘JK’ as he is nicknamed in the locker room, has steadily climbed the before joining up with the first team squad at the start of the 2014-2015 season and Laurent Blanc is already a big admirer of the teenager’s talents, who impressed during a pre-season tour to America and the winter trip to Doha.
If you watch Augustin play for the first time, you will notice that his physical qualities are above the average, characterised by his tremendous acceleration. “My play is based on explosiveness,” the attacker affirmed. “Between training sessions I work in the weights room.”
Team-mate Maxwell would not say anything to the contrary. “He has speed, he has power and he is physically strong,” the left-back told Goal. “Unfortunately, we have many attackers so he’s not had a great deal of time on the field. But each time that he’s come onto the park, he’s shown his qualities.”
Despite his footballing education, the player was quick to realise that this alone would not be enough to attain the highest level. His first training session with the professionals acted as something of a revelation. He might have had four or five chances as a youngster to score, but the PSG stars did not allow him such a luxury at this superior echelon. “He had to work on certain things when he came,” coach Laurent Blanc conceded.
“I’ve made progress in front of the goal,” the player admitted. “But I still have a lot of progress to make to get to that level. Training with big stars every day, you can only succeed. My team-mates tell me I must think of hitting the target before I start to think about shooting hard.”
Maxwell is one of these players to gives him counsel and he explained further: “We hope he will continue to be motivated each day, even if he doesn’t play much. We’ll do everything to help him become better as a player.”
Within the club, only a golden future with the Parisiens is forecast. The atmosphere of a club that can count itself among one of the true contenders to win the Champions League has only helped the youngster become ranked 20th in the Goal 50 Under-18.
The head of Augustin in developing. At 18, the boy softly leaves the room for a man who better and better understands the requirements of reaching the highest level. “When you are a young player at PSG, there is a lot of competition and you have to be very good,” affirmed Blanc. “He, therefore, must continue to progress but also to play regularly if he is to become very, very good.”
One situation that could allow this is for Augustin to spend six months elsewhere to test himself after a landmark campaign that saw him score his first Ligue 1 goal this season against Troyes and play his first minutes in the Champions League against Malmo.
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