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"From the outside, it seems crazy," the young defender remarks, as he looks back 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

Shortly after winning the U21 European Championship with England at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to go to Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.

The significant transfer sum equalled high expectations as the young defender was tasked with finding his feet in a new country and at a club where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had taken over to succeed the previous coach and a number of key players were gone or going – including Florian Wirtz, key squad members, influential figures, Amine Adli, experienced professionals, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

League Introduction

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

"Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, at home, after five minutes, is certainly a whirlwind," Quansah states. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The player could have been forgiven for wondering what he had committed to at Leverkusen. After the encouraging beginning in their first league game, they succumbed to a narrow loss and the following game on August 30th was just as bad. Ten Hag's team squandered comfortable advantages to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, the tying goal coming in added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for very long. His dismissal came on 1 September.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If composure defines his game, it was evident during the conversation he participated in after joining the national team for the international friendly against Wales and the qualifying match against Latvia.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he originally planned to do at the team – play. Hjulmand has established consistency. His team have three wins and one draw in four league matches along with draws in each of their European matches. But there is a more significant number that motivates the player, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the one which shows he has played every minute of the team's season.

National Team Attention

It is one that the England head coach has noted. The England head coach 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 provided him with a late call-up in September when the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have done something right in practice sessions and within the squad environment because he was named at the outset in the manager's 24‑man group for the upcoming matches, essentially as a additional defensive option with the regular starter returning. The aspiration is a debut. It is another thing he would surely take in his stride.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the team were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not just from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah says. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So understanding it was a sort of organizational choice and nothing would change with which manager was to take over ... it was easy for me to make that decision.

"We had a lot of players leaving and it's always tough when you lose key players. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the results we have had [under Hjulmand] demonstrate that we have developed a competitive team with quality players. It is requiring patience to build and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding defeats that is a good place to begin from."

Liverpool Departure

It had to have been a difficult separation for Quansah to depart from Liverpool, his club from the age of five, 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 last season's domestic championship success. Yet his perspective 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 four starts and nine appearances comparing unfavourably with his statistics from 2023‑24 when he featured more regularly.

Professional Growth

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

"My primary desire was regular playing opportunities and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not guaranteed because there are elite performers all over the pitch. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I might make mistakes at times but they will see beyond that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah recalls 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 "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a smile, starting with his debut; a 5-1 defeat at their opponents.

"That represented a true eye-opener," Quansah says. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I wanted to make the subsequent progression to playing first-team football. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's where I understood how crucial practical knowledge and playing games was. You could suggest it influenced my decision in the off-season."