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"From the outside, it seems insane," the young defender says, as he looks back on his recent summer, when dizzying change felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Brief Summary

Shortly 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 the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought high expectations as the 22-year-old 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 succeed Xabi Alonso and a number of key players were departing or already left – chief among them Florian Wirtz, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

League Introduction

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on August 23rd at home to their opponents and the centre-half scored after the opening minutes, though the achievement was undercut by sadness. His primary thought was Diogo Jota, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah executed his teammate's signature celebration as a mark of respect.

"Scoring on your Bundesliga debut, at home, after five minutes, is definitely a whirlwind," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The defender could have been excused for questioning what he had committed to at the German club. After the encouraging beginning in their first league game, they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat and the next match on August 30th was just as bad. Ten Hag's team squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, the tying goal coming in added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for much longer. His dismissal came on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah does not come across as the type to fret. If calmness defines his game, it was evident during the interview he participated in after joining the national team for the Wembley friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against their next opponents.

Quansah has kept his head down under the new Leverkusen manager, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he always intended to do at the team – play. Hjulmand has established consistency. His team have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with ties in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a more significant number that motivates the player, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the fact that demonstrates he has played every minute of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is something that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The national team manager was a admirer previously, including him when he announced his initial selection. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the youth tournament, he gave him a last-minute inclusion in the autumn when John Stones was forced to withdraw.

Still to win his international debut, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and around the camp because he was named at the beginning in the manager's 24‑man group for Wales and Latvia, effectively as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is another thing he would certainly 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 coach," Quansah says. "Their interest existed prior to his arrival. So understanding it was a type of internal decision and things would remain consistent with whatever coach was to come in ... it was straightforward for me to make that decision.

"We had a numerous squad members departing and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the outcomes we have had recently show that we have got a competitive team with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to develop and we are not where we want to be. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and not losing that is a solid foundation to start."

Liverpool Departure

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to leave Liverpool, his team since childhood, where he experienced so many memorable moments – such as the league cup triumph over Chelsea in 2023‑24 when he came on as an late replacement.

Quansah was also involved in the previous campaign's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of much of that was not the perspective he would have preferred. 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.

Career Development

"I've always learned off some of the best players around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial 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 where I want to be.

"My primary desire was regular playing opportunities and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not guaranteed because there are world-class players throughout the squad. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I might make mistakes at times but they will look under that and recognize I can continue developing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah remembers his loan to the lower division club in the later part of that season where he made his first senior appearances – 16 of them, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a grin, starting with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a really valuable chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to playing first-team football. Each match I learned something new. That's where I knew how valuable practical knowledge and match practice was. You could suggest it informed my choice in the summer."