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"From the outside, it seems crazy," Jarell Quansah remarks, as he looks back on his summer just gone, when rapid transformation felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a crazy game."

A Brief Summary

Days after winning the European Under-21 Championship with England at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave his childhood club, to join the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought big pressure as the young defender was tasked with finding his feet in a foreign land 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 gone or going – including several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

League Introduction

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at their home ground to their opponents and the centre-half scored after five minutes, though the achievement was undercut by tragedy. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah executed his teammate's signature celebration as a mark of respect.

"To have a goal on your Bundesliga debut, at home, after five minutes, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a tribute 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 succumbed to a narrow loss and the next match on 30 August was equally disappointing. The squad 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 very long. His dismissal came on 1 September.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah does not come across as the kind to worry. If calmness defines his game, it was evident during the interview he gave after joining the national team for the Wembley friendly against their rivals and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia.

Quansah has kept his head down under the new Leverkusen manager, Kasper Hjulmand, and persisted in doing what he always intended to do at the team – play. Hjulmand has brought stability. His team have positive results in their domestic campaign along with draws in each of their European matches. But there is a more significant number that motivates the player, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has been ever-present of the team's season.

National Team Attention

It is one that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The England head coach was a admirer previously, selecting Quansah when he announced his initial selection. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could focus on the Under-21 European Championship, he provided him with a late call-up in the autumn when the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.

Yet to earn his international debut, 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 Stones fit again. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is another thing he would certainly handle with ease.

Decision Making

"At Leverkusen, the team were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not just from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah says. "They were interested prior to his arrival. So understanding it was a sort of internal decision and things would remain consistent with whatever coach was to come in ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path.

"We had a lot of players departing and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to build the leadership groups but the outcomes we have had recently show that we have got a good squad with quality players. 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 good place to start."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a difficult separation for Quansah to depart from his long-time club, his team since childhood, where he experienced so many memorable moments – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over Chelsea in the previous season when he was introduced 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 chosen. He was an unused substitute on 25 occasions in the league, his four starts and nine appearances falling short compared to his numbers from 2023‑24 when he started nine games.

Professional Growth

"I consistently developed off top-level professionals around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial for my career," he says. "However, for a developing defender, you need games and I'm will require 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 throughout the squad. I wanted somewhere where they can have confidence that I could errors at times but they will look under that and see I can keep pushing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah recalls his temporary transfer to League One Bristol Rovers in the second-half of 2022-23 where he debuted at professional level – 16 of them, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a grin, starting with his first game; a heavy loss at their opponents.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah reflects. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I wanted to make the subsequent progression to playing first-team football. Every game I gained fresh insights. That's when I knew how crucial practical knowledge and playing games was. You could say it influenced my decision in the off-season."