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

A Quick Recap

Shortly after claiming victory in the European Under-21 Championship with England at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to join the Bundesliga side in a multi-million pound transfer.

The significant transfer sum equalled big pressure as the 22-year-old was tasked with settling in in a foreign land and at a team where the turnover was substantial. The new manager had taken over to replace the previous coach and a number 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 23 August at home to Hoffenheim and the centre-half scored after five minutes, albeit the achievement was overshadowed by tragedy. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed Jota's gamer celebration as a mark of respect.

"To have a goal on your Bundesliga debut, at home, after five minutes, is definitely a whirlwind," Quansah says. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a homage to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The defender could have been forgiven for wondering what he had committed to at the German club. After the encouraging beginning in their opening league fixture, they fell to a narrow loss and the following game on 30 August was just as bad. The squad squandered comfortable advantages to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, the equaliser coming in added time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. He was sacked on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah does not come across as the type to fret. If calmness characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the conversation he participated in after joining the national team for the Wembley friendly against their rivals and the World Cup qualifier against their next opponents.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, Kasper Hjulmand, and continued to do what he originally planned to do at the club – play. Hjulmand has established consistency. His squad have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign along with ties in each of their European matches. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the fact that demonstrates he has played every minute of the team's season.

National Team Attention

It is one that Thomas Tuchel has observed. The England head coach was a fan last season, selecting Quansah when he announced his initial selection. After omitting him in the summer so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he provided him with a last-minute inclusion in the autumn when the experienced defender was forced to withdraw.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and within the squad environment because he was selected at the outset in Tuchel's 24‑man group for the upcoming matches, effectively as a fifth centre-back with the regular starter returning. The dream is a first appearance. It is another thing he would surely handle with ease.

Career Choices

"At Leverkusen, the club were keen on signing me for a while and that's not only from the coach," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So understanding it was a type of organizational choice and nothing would change with whatever coach was to come in ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path.

"There were a numerous squad members departing and it's always tough when you lose key players. It has been tough to establish new hierarchies but the outcomes we have had recently demonstrate that we have got a good squad with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to develop and we are not where we want to be. But if we are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding defeats that is a solid foundation to start."

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 significant occasions – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over Chelsea in 2023‑24 when he was introduced as an late replacement.

Quansah was also a part of the previous campaign's domestic championship success. Yet his perspective of most of that achievement was not the one he would have preferred. He was an unused substitute 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.

Career Development

"I've always learned off top-level professionals around me at Liverpool and it's been so good for my career," he says. "But as a young centre-back, you need games 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 top-level club, it's not guaranteed because there are elite performers throughout the squad. I wanted somewhere where they can trust that I might make mistakes at certain moments but they will look under that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Early Experience

Quansah recalls his temporary transfer to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he made his first senior appearances – 16 of them, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a grin, starting with his debut; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah reflects. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to regular senior competition. Every game I learned something new. That's when I understood how crucial experience and match practice was. You could say it informed my choice in the off-season."