🔗 Share this article

"To an observer, it appears crazy," Jarell Quansah says, as he reflects on his summer just gone, when rapid transformation felt like a constant. "However, that's just how it goes ... football is a crazy game."

A Brief Summary

Days after winning the European Under-21 Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah opted to depart from Liverpool, to go to the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought big pressure as the young defender was charged with finding his feet in a foreign land and at a team where the turnover was dramatic. The new manager had stepped in to replace the previous coach and a number of key players were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, established players and Jonathan Tah.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on August 23rd at home to Hoffenheim and the central defender found the net after five minutes, albeit the achievement was overshadowed by tragedy. All he could think about was Diogo Jota, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed Jota's gamer celebration as a tribute.

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, at home, after five minutes, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a tribute to Diogo."

Initial Struggles

The defender could have been forgiven for wondering what he had committed to at Leverkusen. From the promising start in their first league game, they fell to a 2-1 defeat and the next match on 30 August was just as bad. Ten Hag's team threw away comfortable advantages to draw 3-3 at 10-man Werder Bremen, the equaliser coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. He was sacked on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If calmness characterizes his playing style, it was on show during the conversation he gave after being selected for England for the international friendly against their rivals and the qualifying match against Latvia.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he always intended to do at the club – compete. The new manager has brought stability. His team have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with draws in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that motivates the player, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the fact that demonstrates he has played every minute of the club's campaign.

International Recognition

It is something that the England head coach has noted. The England head coach was a fan last season, selecting Quansah when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he gave him a late call-up in September when John Stones was compelled to pull out.

Yet to earn his international debut, Quansah must have done something right in training and around the camp because he was selected at the outset in Tuchel's squad selection for the upcoming matches, essentially as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a debut. It is another thing he would surely take in his stride.

Decision Making

"At Leverkusen, the team were keen on signing me for a considerable time and that's not only from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So knowing it was a sort of internal decision and nothing would change with which manager was to take over ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"There were a numerous squad members leaving and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the results we have had recently show that we have got a good squad with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to develop and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and not losing that is a solid foundation to begin from."

Liverpool Departure

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to depart from Liverpool, his club from the age of five, where he enjoyed so many significant occasions – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over their London rivals in 2023‑24 when he was introduced as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also a part of the previous campaign's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of most of that achievement was not the perspective he would have chosen. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the league, his limited playing time falling short compared to his numbers from 2023‑24 when he started nine games.

Career Development

"I consistently developed off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been incredibly beneficial for my career," he comments. "However, for a developing defender, you require match experience and I'm going to be needing extensive playing time to be at my desired level.

"I just wanted regular playing opportunities and when you are at a top-level club, it's not guaranteed because there are elite performers all over the pitch. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I could errors at times but they will look under that and recognize I can continue developing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah remembers his temporary transfer to the lower division club in the later part of that season where he debuted at professional level – 16 of them, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a grin, starting with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at their opponents.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah says. "It proved a really valuable part of my career because I aimed to take the next step to playing first-team football. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's when I understood how crucial practical knowledge and playing games was. You could say it informed my decision in the off-season."