Top four football players who sued their former clubs

Many clubs often don’t pay their players leftover wages.

Sometimes in football, players and their clubs get involved in controversy over many things. However, one of the frequent reasons a player has called out his former club was for not getting paid what he was owed in wages even after he left the club.

We have witnessed many times how the clubs have not paid their former players’ unpaid wages. This sometimes results in players taking that club to court.

In this article, we take a look at players who have sued their former clubs, and how things have turned out for them and the clubs.

4. Jean-Kevin Augustin

In 2020, Leeds United signed Jean-Kevin Augustin on loan from German side RB Leipzig. But during his time at the club, he barely played and appeared for just 48 minutes, due to injury and failure to convince the club of his abilities. Before sending him on loan Leipzig inserted a clause that if Leeds earned promotion to the Premier League they would buy the player permanently.

Leeds managed to make it to the English top-flight league that season which activated a £17.7 million (AU$33m) clause to buy Augustin from Leipzig. But Leeds wanted to avoid acquiring Augustin and claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic had nullified the transfer that was in place. But the German club disagreed and the English club ended up paying his transfer fee.

Leeds also failed to pay Jean-Kevin Augustin’s wages which saw the player taking the club to the FIFA panel, which later ordered the club to pay Augustin £24.5 million ($45.7m) in compensation for breach of contract. Leeds wanted to challenge the player and went to the FIFA panel but later withdrew their case.

3. Cafu

Cafu’s situation was different as he sued AS Roma for other reasons. He sued Qatar Airways and Roma for infringement of his image rights related to a 2019 club testimonial he played in. Five years ago, as part of a partnership with erstwhile sponsor Qatar Airways, Cafu reportedly agreed to feature in his club’s testimonial for a documentary.

He went to Warsaw, where a documentary was made and was quickly shown on TV. Cafu reportedly pushed his agent, Vincenzo Aliotta, to work out a financial deal with Roma. But the negotiations reportedly proceeded slowly and were often delayed.

However, it appeared that he would make a decision to pursue legal action and was seeking roughly £10 million ($12 million) in damages ‘based on the 46-month period in which the advertising was displayed and his recurring sponsorship contracts,’ but so far nothing happened.

2. Sergio Aguero

Sergio Aguero had joined Barcelona in the 2021–22 season. However, his time with the Catalan powerhouse was cut short due to medical issues.

It appeared that the player and the team had a cordial relationship when he retired, but it has now been made public that Aguero is suing Barcelona. Barcelona discovered in their 2023–24 annual financial report that Aguero had sent them a conciliation notification, claiming he was owed €3 million in compensation for the contract termination.

The report also states that the dispute is currently on a social court’s sub judice after a conciliation act was reached between the two sides on June 21, 2024. Barcelona insist they don’t have any record of the claims.

1. Kylian Mbappe

The matter between Mbappe and his prior team is still open even after he left PSG. Mbappe is suing PSG for €55 million that he says is due as part of a 2022 renewal bonus and other performance-related rewards, according to the French publication Le Monde. Mbappe is claiming that the last three months of his PSG tenure were unpaid.

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