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"From the outside, it appears insane," the young defender remarks, as he looks back on his recent summer, when rapid transformation felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Quick Recap

Days after winning the European Under-21 Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah opted to depart from his childhood club, to go to the Bundesliga side in a multi-million pound transfer.

The significant transfer sum equalled big pressure as the young defender was tasked with finding his feet in a foreign land and at a club where the churn was dramatic. The new manager had taken over to succeed Xabi Alonso and a number of key players were gone or going – including several high-profile names, key squad members, influential figures, prominent athletes, experienced professionals, established players and Jonathan Tah.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at home to their opponents and the central defender scored after the opening minutes, albeit the achievement was overshadowed by tragedy. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah performed Jota's gamer celebration as a tribute.

"Scoring on your Bundesliga debut, in front of home fans, after the opening moments, is definitely a whirlwind," Quansah says. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a tribute to Diogo."

Early Challenges

The player could have been forgiven for wondering what he had signed up for at Leverkusen. From the promising start in their opening league fixture, they fell to a 2-1 defeat and the next match on 30 August was just as bad. Ten Hag's team squandered 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. He was sacked on 1 September.

Staying Focused

Quansah doesn't appear to be the kind to worry. If composure characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the conversation he gave after joining the national team for the international friendly against their rivals and the qualifying match against their next opponents.

Quansah has kept his head down under the current coach, Kasper Hjulmand, and persisted in doing what he always intended to do at the club – compete. The new manager has established consistency. His team have positive results in four league matches along with draws in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that motivates the player, even bringing a measure of vindication. 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 noted. The national team manager was a admirer previously, selecting Quansah when he named his first squad. After omitting him in the summer so that Quansah could focus on the Under-21 European Championship, he gave him a last-minute inclusion in the autumn when John Stones was compelled to pull out.

Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and around the camp because he was named at the beginning in the manager's squad selection for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a first appearance. It is another thing he would certainly take in his stride.

Career Choices

"At Leverkusen, the team were interested in me for a considerable time and that's not only from the manager [Ten Hag]," Quansah explains. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So understanding it was a sort of organizational choice and things would remain consistent with whatever coach was to come in ... it was straightforward for me to make that decision.

"There were a numerous squad members departing and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been difficult to establish new hierarchies but the outcomes we have had recently show that we have developed a competitive team 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 begin from."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to leave his long-time club, 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 came on as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also a part of 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 unused substitute on 25 occasions in the competition, his limited playing time comparing unfavourably with his numbers from the prior season 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 professional development," he says. "But as a young centre-back, you need games and I'm going to be needing hundreds of games to be where I want to be.

"My primary desire was regular playing opportunities and when you are at a team like Liverpool, it's not promised because there are elite performers all over the pitch. I wanted somewhere where they can have confidence that I might make mistakes at certain moments but they will look under that and recognize I can keep pushing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah remembers his loan 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 smile, beginning with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at their opponents.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah reflects. "It was a extremely important chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to playing first-team football. Each match I learned something new. That's when I understood how valuable practical knowledge and match practice was. You could suggest it influenced my choice in the summer."