🔗 Share this article

"To an observer, it appears insane," the young defender says, as he reflects on his recent summer, when rapid transformation 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 European Under-21 Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah opted to depart from his childhood club, to join the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.

The big fee equalled big pressure as the young defender was charged with finding his feet in a foreign land and at a team where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had stepped in to replace the previous coach and a host of star performers were gone or going – chief among them several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and team leaders.

League Introduction

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at their home ground to their opponents and the central defender scored after the opening minutes, albeit the goal was undercut by tragedy. His primary thought was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah executed Jota's gamer celebration as a mark of respect.

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, at home, after the opening moments, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah says. "But my overwhelming feeling 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. From the promising start in their first league game, they fell to a narrow loss and the following game on August 30th was just as bad. Ten Hag's team threw away 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for very long. He was sacked on September 1st.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah doesn't appear to be the kind to worry. If calmness characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the conversation he participated in after joining the national team for the international friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, Kasper Hjulmand, and continued to do what he originally planned to do at the club – play. Hjulmand has brought stability. His squad have positive results in their domestic campaign along with ties 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 one which shows he has played every minute of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is one that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The England head coach was a fan last season, selecting Quansah when he announced his initial selection. 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 the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.

Yet to earn his international debut, Quansah must have done something right in training and within the squad environment because he was selected at the outset in Tuchel's 24‑man group for Wales and Latvia, effectively as a fifth centre-back with the regular starter returning. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is another thing he would surely handle with ease.

Decision Making

"At Leverkusen, the team were interested in me for a while and that's not just from the coach," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So understanding it was a type of internal decision and nothing would change with which manager was to come in ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"We had a lot of players leaving and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been tough to build the leadership groups but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] show that we have got a good squad with quality players. It is going to take time to build and we are not where we want to be. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding defeats that is a good place to start."

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 Chelsea in the previous season when he came on as an late replacement.

Quansah was also a part of the previous campaign's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of much of that was not the perspective he would have chosen. He was an unused substitute on 25 occasions in the competition, his four starts and nine appearances comparing unfavourably with his numbers from the prior season when he started nine games.

Professional Growth

"I consistently developed off some of the best players around me at Liverpool and it's been so good for my career," he says. "But as a young centre-back, you require match experience and I'm going to be needing extensive playing time to be where I want to be.

"I just wanted regular playing opportunities and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not promised because there are world-class players throughout the squad. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I could errors at times but they will see beyond that and recognize 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 – multiple matches, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a smile, starting with his debut; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a extremely important part of my career because I aimed to take the next step to playing first-team football. Every game I learned something new. That's when I knew how crucial experience and playing games was. You could say it influenced my choice in the off-season."