🔗 Share this article Leverkusen's Quansah Keeps Calm and Carries On in His Gradual Ascent to Stardom "To an observer, it seems crazy," Jarell Quansah says, 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 conclusion of June, Quansah opted to depart from Liverpool, to go to the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal. The big fee brought high expectations as the young defender was charged with settling in in a new country and at a club where the churn was substantial. The new manager had taken over to succeed Xabi Alonso and a number of key players were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, experienced professionals, established players and Jonathan Tah. Bundesliga Debut Quansah's first league appearance came on August 23rd at their home ground to their opponents and the central defender scored after five minutes, albeit the goal was overshadowed by tragedy. All he could think about was Diogo Jota, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed Jota's gamer celebration as a mark of respect. "To have a goal on your first Bundesliga match, at home, after five minutes, is certainly a whirlwind," Quansah says. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a tribute to Diogo." Initial Struggles 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 fell to a narrow loss and the following game on August 30th was just as bad. The squad squandered comfortable advantages to finish level at their reduced opponents, the equaliser coming in added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for very long. His dismissal came on September 1st. Maintaining Composure Quansah doesn't appear to be the kind to worry. If calmness characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the interview he gave after being selected for the national team for the international friendly against Wales and the qualifying match against their next opponents. Quansah has kept his head down under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he always intended to do at the club – compete. The new manager has brought stability. 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 broader statistic that motivates the player, 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 England head coach was a fan previously, including him when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he provided him with a last-minute inclusion in the autumn when John Stones was compelled to pull out. Yet to earn his international debut, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in training and around the camp because he was selected at the outset in the manager's squad selection for Wales and Latvia, effectively as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is one more milestone he would certainly take in his stride. Career Choices "At Leverkusen, the club were interested in me for a while and that's not only from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah says. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So knowing it was a sort of internal decision and nothing would change with which manager was to take over ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path. "We had a numerous squad members leaving and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] show that we have got a competitive team with talented individuals. It is going to take time to develop 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 leave 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 the previous campaign's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of most of that achievement was not the one he would have preferred. He was an unused substitute on 25 occasions in the competition, his four starts and nine appearances comparing unfavourably with his numbers from the prior season when he started nine games. Professional Growth "I've always learned 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 going to be needing hundreds of games to be where I want to be. "I just wanted game time and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not promised because there are elite performers all over the pitch. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I could errors at times but they will see beyond that and see I can keep pushing and improving." Foundation Building Quansah remembers his temporary transfer 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 "multiple reality checks", he says with a grin, starting with his debut; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe. "That represented a true eye-opener," Quansah reflects. "It was a extremely important part of my career because I aimed to take the subsequent progression to regular senior competition. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's where I understood how crucial practical knowledge and playing games was. You could say it informed my choice in the summer."