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"From the outside, it appears 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 unpredictable game."

A Brief Summary

Days after claiming victory in the U21 European 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 equalled high expectations as the young defender was charged with finding his feet in a new country and at a team where the churn was dramatic. The new manager had stepped in to replace Xabi Alonso and a host of key players were gone or going – chief among them Florian Wirtz, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and team leaders.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's first league appearance came on August 23rd at their home ground to Hoffenheim and the centre-half scored after the opening minutes, though the goal was overshadowed by tragedy. All he could think about was Diogo Jota, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah executed Jota's gamer celebration as a tribute.

"Scoring on your Bundesliga debut, in front of home fans, after five minutes, is definitely a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Initial Struggles

The defender could have been excused for questioning what he had signed up for at the German club. After the encouraging beginning in their first league game, they succumbed to a narrow loss and the next match on August 30th was just as bad. Ten Hag's team squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to draw 3-3 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 kind to worry. If composure characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the conversation he gave after being selected for the national team for the Wembley friendly against their rivals and the qualifying match against their next opponents.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he always intended to do at the club – play. The new manager 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 sense of justification. It is the fact that demonstrates he has been ever-present of the team's season.

National Team Attention

It is one that the England head coach has observed. The England head coach was a admirer previously, selecting Quansah when he announced his initial selection. After omitting him in the summer so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he gave him a late call-up in September when John Stones was forced to withdraw.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have done something right in training and within the squad environment because he was selected at the beginning in Tuchel's squad selection for the upcoming matches, effectively as a additional defensive option with the regular starter returning. The aspiration is a debut. It is another thing he would certainly handle with ease.

Decision Making

"At Leverkusen, the team were keen on signing me for a while and that's not just from the coach," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So knowing it was a type of internal decision and things would remain consistent with whatever coach was to come in ... it was easy 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 recently demonstrate that we have developed a competitive team with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to build and we are still progressing. But if we are getting results and avoiding defeats that is a good place to begin from."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to depart from Liverpool, his team since childhood, where he enjoyed so many memorable moments – such as the league cup triumph over their London rivals in 2023‑24 when he was introduced as an late replacement.

Quansah was also involved in the previous campaign's domestic championship success. Yet his view of much of that was not the perspective he would have chosen. He was an non-playing reserve on multiple matches in the competition, his four starts and nine appearances falling short compared to his numbers from the prior season when he featured more regularly.

Professional Growth

"I've always learned off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been incredibly beneficial for my career," he says. "But as a young centre-back, you need games and I'm going to be needing extensive playing time to be at my desired level.

"I just wanted game time and when you are at a top-level club, it's not guaranteed because there are elite performers throughout the squad. I wanted somewhere where they can trust that I could errors at certain moments but they will look under that and see I can continue developing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah remembers his loan to the lower division club in the later part of that season where he debuted at professional level – multiple matches, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a grin, beginning with his debut; a heavy loss at their opponents.

"That was a genuine revelation," Quansah reflects. "It was a really valuable chapter in my development because I wanted to make the subsequent progression to regular senior competition. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's when I understood how valuable practical knowledge and playing games was. You could suggest it influenced my choice in the summer."