🔗 Share this article

"To an observer, it seems crazy," Jarell Quansah remarks, as he reflects on his summer just gone, when dizzying change felt like a constant. "However, that's just how it goes ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Brief Summary

Days after winning the U21 European Championship with England at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to go to the Bundesliga side in a multi-million pound transfer.

The big fee equalled big pressure as the 22-year-old was tasked with finding his feet in a new country and at a club where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had taken over to succeed Xabi Alonso and a number of star performers were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, established players and Jonathan Tah.

League Introduction

Quansah's first league appearance came on August 23rd at home to their opponents and the centre-half found the net after the opening minutes, albeit the goal was undercut by sadness. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah executed his teammate's signature celebration as a mark of respect.

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, at home, after the opening moments, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah says. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a tribute to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The defender could have been excused for questioning what he had signed up for at Leverkusen. From the promising start in their opening league fixture, they fell to a narrow loss and the next match on 30 August was equally disappointing. The squad squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to draw 3-3 at 10-man Werder Bremen, the equaliser coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. His dismissal came on September 1st.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the kind to worry. If calmness defines his game, it was on show during the interview he gave after being selected for England for the international friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

Quansah has kept his head down under the new Leverkusen manager, the Danish tactician, and persisted in doing what he originally planned to do at the club – play. The new manager has brought stability. His team have positive results in four league matches along with draws in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the fact that demonstrates he has been ever-present of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is something that the England head coach has observed. The England head coach was a fan last season, including him when he announced his initial selection. After omitting him in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the Under-21 European Championship, he provided him with a last-minute inclusion in the autumn when the experienced defender was forced to withdraw.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in training and within the squad environment because he was selected at the beginning in Tuchel's 24‑man group for Wales and Latvia, effectively as a fifth centre-back with the regular starter returning. The dream is a debut. It is another thing he would certainly handle with ease.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the team were interested in me for a while and that's not only from the coach," Quansah explains. "They were interested prior to his arrival. So understanding it was a type of internal decision and things would remain consistent with which manager was to take over ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path.

"There were a numerous squad members departing and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to establish new hierarchies but the results we have had recently show that we have developed a competitive team with quality players. It is going to take time to build and we are still progressing. But if we are getting results and not losing that is a good place to begin from."

Liverpool Departure

It had to have been a difficult separation for Quansah to depart from Liverpool, his team since childhood, where he enjoyed so many memorable moments – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over their London rivals in the previous season when he came on as an late replacement.

Quansah was also involved in last season's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of most of that achievement was not the one he would have chosen. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the league, his four starts and nine appearances falling short compared to his statistics from 2023‑24 when he featured more regularly.

Professional Growth

"I consistently developed off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been so good for my professional development," he comments. "But as a young centre-back, you require match experience and I'm will require hundreds of games to be where I want to be.

"My primary desire was regular playing opportunities and when you are at a top-level club, it's not promised because there are elite performers throughout the squad. I wanted somewhere where they can trust that I could errors at certain moments but they will look under that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah remembers his loan to the lower division club in the later part of that season where he made his first senior appearances – multiple matches, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a grin, starting with his first game; a heavy loss at their opponents.

"That was a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I aimed to take the next step to regular senior competition. Every game I learned something new. That's where I understood how valuable experience and playing games was. You could suggest it influenced my choice in the off-season."