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

A Quick Recap

Days after winning the U21 European Championship with the English national team at the conclusion of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to go to Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.

The big fee brought high expectations as the 22-year-old was charged with settling in in a foreign land and at a team where the churn was substantial. Erik ten Hag had taken over to replace the previous coach and a host of key players were departing or already left – including Florian Wirtz, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, experienced professionals, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.

League Introduction

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at their home ground to Hoffenheim and the central defender found the net after five minutes, though the goal was overshadowed by sadness. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah executed Jota's gamer celebration as a mark of respect.

"To have a goal on your first Bundesliga match, in front of home fans, after five minutes, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The defender could have been forgiven for wondering what he had committed to at Leverkusen. From the promising start in their first league game, they succumbed to a narrow loss and the following game on August 30th was equally disappointing. The squad threw away 2-0 and 3-1 leads to draw 3-3 at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in added time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. His dismissal came on September 1st.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If calmness characterizes his playing style, it was on show during the interview he gave after being selected for England for the Wembley friendly against Wales and the qualifying match against their next opponents.

Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and persisted in doing what he originally planned to do at the team – play. Hjulmand has brought stability. His team have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with draws in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has been ever-present of the team's season.

International Recognition

It is one that Thomas Tuchel has observed. The England head coach was a admirer last season, including him when he announced his initial selection. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could focus on the Under-21 European Championship, he gave him a late call-up in September 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 around the camp because he was named at the outset in the manager's 24‑man group for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a additional defensive option with the regular starter returning. The aspiration is a debut. It is one more milestone he would surely handle with ease.

Decision Making

"At Leverkusen, the club were keen on signing me for a considerable time and that's not only from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed prior to his arrival. So knowing it was a sort of internal decision and nothing would change with which manager was to come in ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"We had a numerous squad members leaving and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to establish new hierarchies but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] show that we have got a competitive team with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to develop and we are still progressing. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and not losing that is a good place to begin from."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a difficult separation for Quansah to leave his long-time club, his club from the age of five, where he experienced 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 view of most of that achievement was not the perspective he would have preferred. He was an unused substitute on 25 occasions in the competition, his limited playing time falling short compared to his numbers 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 incredibly beneficial for my career," he says. "But as a young centre-back, you require match experience and I'm going to be needing hundreds of games to be at my desired level.

"I just wanted game time and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not guaranteed because there are elite performers throughout the squad. I wanted an environment where they can trust that I could errors at certain moments but they will look under that and recognize I can continue developing and improving."

Early Experience

Quansah remembers 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 "multiple reality checks", he notes with a grin, beginning with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe.

"That was a genuine revelation," Quansah reflects. "It proved a really valuable chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to regular senior competition. Each match I learned something new. That's when I understood how valuable practical knowledge and playing games was. You could suggest it informed my decision in the off-season."