🔗 Share this article

"To an observer, it seems insane," Jarell Quansah says, as he looks back on his recent summer, when dizzying change felt like a constant. "However, that's just how it goes ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Brief Summary

Days after claiming victory in the U21 European Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah opted to depart from Liverpool, to go to the Bundesliga side in a multi-million pound transfer.

The big fee brought high expectations as the young defender was charged with settling in in a new country and at a club where the turnover was substantial. The new manager had taken over to succeed Xabi Alonso and a host of key players were gone or going – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, experienced professionals, Lukas Hradecky and team leaders.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on August 23rd at home to Hoffenheim and the central defender found the net after the opening minutes, though 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 tribute.

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, in front of home fans, after five minutes, is definitely a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Initial Struggles

The player could have been forgiven for wondering what he had committed to at Leverkusen. After the encouraging beginning in their opening league fixture, they succumbed to a narrow loss and the following game on 30 August was just as bad. The squad squandered comfortable advantages to draw 3-3 at 10-man Werder Bremen, the equaliser coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for much longer. His dismissal came on 1 September.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah does not come across as the type to fret. If calmness defines his game, it was evident during the conversation he gave after joining the national team for the Wembley friendly against Wales and the qualifying match against their next opponents.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, Kasper Hjulmand, and continued to do what he always intended to do at the club – play. The new manager has brought stability. His squad have positive results in their domestic campaign along with ties in each of their European matches. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has been ever-present of the club's campaign.

International Recognition

It is one that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The national team manager was a fan last season, selecting Quansah when he named his first squad. After omitting him in the summer so that Quansah could concentrate on the Under-21 European Championship, he provided him with a late call-up in September when John Stones 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 named at the beginning in Tuchel's 24‑man group for the upcoming matches, essentially as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The dream is a first appearance. It is one more milestone he would certainly handle with ease.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the club were keen on signing me for a while and that's not only from the coach," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So understanding it was a sort of internal decision and nothing would change with whatever coach was to come in ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"We had a lot of players leaving and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to build the leadership groups but the results we have had recently demonstrate that we have developed a good squad with talented individuals. It is going to take time to build and we are still progressing. But if we are getting results and avoiding defeats that is a good place to begin from."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to leave his long-time club, his team since childhood, where he experienced so many significant occasions – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over their London rivals in 2023‑24 when he came on as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also a part of the previous campaign's Premier League title triumph. Yet his view of much of that was not the perspective 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 the prior season when he started nine games.

Professional Growth

"I've always learned off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been incredibly beneficial for my professional development," he comments. "But as a young centre-back, you need games and I'm will require hundreds of games to be where I want to be.

"My primary desire was game time 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 trust that I might make mistakes at times but they will see beyond that and see I can continue developing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah remembers his temporary transfer to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he debuted at professional level – 16 of them, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a grin, starting with his first game; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah reflects. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I wanted to make the subsequent progression to regular senior competition. Every game I learned something new. That's where I knew how valuable practical knowledge and match practice was. You could say it influenced my decision in the summer."