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"From the outside, it seems insane," Jarell Quansah remarks, 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 Quick Recap

Shortly after claiming victory in the European Under-21 Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to join the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.

The significant transfer sum equalled big pressure as the 22-year-old was tasked with finding his feet in a new country and at a team where the turnover was substantial. Erik ten Hag had stepped in to succeed Xabi Alonso and a host of star performers were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at their home ground to Hoffenheim and the central defender scored after the opening minutes, though the achievement was undercut by tragedy. His primary thought was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed Jota's gamer celebration as a tribute.

"To have a goal on your first Bundesliga match, at home, after five minutes, 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 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 equally disappointing. Ten Hag's team squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to draw 3-3 at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for much longer. His dismissal came on September 1st.

Staying Focused

Quansah does not come across as the kind to worry. If composure characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the conversation he gave after joining England for the Wembley friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, Kasper Hjulmand, and persisted in doing what he originally planned to do at the club – play. Hjulmand has established consistency. His team have positive results in their domestic campaign along with ties in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has played every minute of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is one that the England head coach has noted. The national team manager was a fan last season, including him when he named his first squad. After omitting him in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the Under-21 European Championship, he gave him a last-minute inclusion in September when the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.

Yet to earn his first cap, Quansah must have done something right in practice sessions and around the camp because he was selected at the beginning in Tuchel's squad selection for the upcoming matches, effectively as a additional defensive option with Stones fit again. The dream is a first appearance. It is one more milestone he would surely take in his stride.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the club were keen on signing me for a while and that's not just from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah explains. "They were interested prior to his arrival. So knowing it was a type of internal decision and things would remain consistent with whatever coach was to take over ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path.

"We had a numerous squad members departing and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to establish new hierarchies but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] demonstrate 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 getting results and avoiding defeats that is a solid foundation 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 enjoyed so many significant occasions – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over Chelsea in 2023‑24 when he was introduced as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also a part of the previous campaign's domestic championship success. Yet his view of most of that achievement was not the perspective he would have preferred. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the league, his limited playing time falling short compared to his statistics from the prior season when he featured more regularly.

Career Development

"I've always learned off top-level professionals around me at my former club and it's been so good for my professional development," he says. "However, for a developing defender, you require match experience and I'm will require hundreds of games to be at my desired level.

"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 all over the pitch. I wanted somewhere where they can have confidence that I could errors at times but they will see beyond that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Early Experience

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 exact. There were "multiple reality checks", he says with a smile, beginning with his first game; a heavy loss at their opponents.

"That was a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a extremely important part of my career because I wanted to make the next step to regular senior competition. Each match I learned something new. That's where I understood how valuable experience and playing games was. You could say it informed my decision in the summer."