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"To an observer, it seems crazy," Jarell Quansah remarks, as he looks back on his recent summer, when dizzying change felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a crazy game."

A Quick Recap

Days after claiming victory in the European Under-21 Championship with the English national team at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to go to Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought big pressure as the young defender was tasked with settling in in a new country 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 Florian Wirtz, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, experienced professionals, established players and team leaders.

League Introduction

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on August 23rd at home to their opponents and the centre-half found the net after the opening minutes, albeit the achievement was undercut by tragedy. All he could think about was Diogo Jota, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah performed his teammate's signature celebration as a tribute.

"To have a goal on your Bundesliga debut, at home, after the opening moments, is certainly a whirlwind," Quansah says. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Initial Struggles

The player could have been excused for questioning what he had committed to at Leverkusen. After the encouraging beginning in their opening league fixture, they fell to a narrow loss and the next match on August 30th was just as bad. Ten Hag's team threw away comfortable advantages to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, the equaliser coming in added time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. He was sacked on September 1st.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If composure characterizes his playing style, it was on show during the interview he gave after joining the national team for the international friendly against their rivals and the World Cup qualifier 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 team – compete. The new manager has established consistency. His squad have positive results in their domestic campaign along with draws 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 played every minute of the team's season.

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 leaving him out in the summer so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he gave him a last-minute inclusion 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 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 one more milestone he would surely take in his stride.

Decision Making

"At Leverkusen, the team were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not just from the coach," Quansah says. "They were interested prior to his arrival. So understanding it was a sort of organizational choice and nothing would change with whatever coach was to take over ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path.

"There were a numerous squad members leaving and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the results we have had recently demonstrate that we have developed a good squad with quality players. It is requiring patience to develop and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and not losing that is a good place to start."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a difficult separation for Quansah to leave Liverpool, his club from the age of five, where he experienced so many significant occasions – such as the league cup triumph over their London rivals in the previous season when he came on as an late replacement.

Quansah was also a part of the previous campaign's domestic championship success. 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 competition, his limited playing time comparing unfavourably with his numbers from 2023‑24 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 comments. "But as a young centre-back, you need games and I'm going to be needing hundreds of games to be at my desired level.

"My primary desire was game time and when you are at a top-level club, it's not promised because there are world-class players all over the pitch. I wanted an environment where they can trust that I could errors at times but they will look under that and see I can keep pushing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah remembers his loan to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he made his first senior appearances – 16 of them, to be precise. There were "multiple reality checks", he notes with a smile, beginning with his debut; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That was a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a really valuable part of my career because I wanted to make the next step to playing first-team football. Every game I learned something new. That's where I knew how crucial experience and match practice was. You could suggest it influenced my decision in the off-season."