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"To an observer, it appears crazy," the young defender remarks, as he looks back on his summer just gone, when rapid transformation felt like a constant. "However, that's just how it goes ... football is a unpredictable game."

A Quick Recap

Shortly after winning the European Under-21 Championship with the English national team at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave 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 charged with finding his feet in a new country and at a club where the turnover was substantial. Erik ten Hag had taken over to succeed the previous coach and a host of key players were departing or already left – chief among them Florian Wirtz, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and team leaders.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at home to their opponents and the centre-half scored after the opening minutes, though the goal was undercut by tragedy. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah performed his teammate's signature celebration as a tribute.

"To have a goal on your Bundesliga debut, in front of home fans, 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 2-1 defeat and the next match on August 30th was equally disappointing. Ten Hag's team squandered comfortable advantages to finish level at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in stoppage time. It was no longer his responsibility for much longer. He was sacked on 1 September.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah does not come across as the kind to worry. If calmness characterizes his playing style, it was on show during the conversation he gave after joining the national team for the international friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against their next opponents.

Quansah has remained focused under the new Leverkusen manager, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he always intended to do at the team – play. 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 Champions League ties. But there is a broader statistic that encourages Quansah, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the fact that demonstrates he has played every minute of the team's season.

International Recognition

It is one that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The national team manager was a admirer last season, including him when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the youth tournament, he provided him with a last-minute inclusion in September when the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.

Yet to earn his first cap, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and around the camp because he was named at the outset in the manager's squad selection for Wales and Latvia, effectively as a additional defensive option with Stones fit again. The dream is a debut. It is another thing he would surely handle with ease.

Career Choices

"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 before he got appointed. So understanding it was a sort of organizational choice and things would remain consistent with which manager was to come in ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path.

"There were a lot of players departing and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the results we have had recently demonstrate that we have developed a competitive team with talented individuals. It is going to take time to develop and we are not where we want to be. 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 difficult separation for Quansah to leave Liverpool, his club from the age of five, where he experienced so many memorable moments – such as the Carabao Cup final victory over their London rivals in 2023‑24 when he was introduced as an extra-time substitute.

Quansah was also involved in last season's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of much of that was not the one he would have preferred. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the league, his four starts and nine appearances falling short compared to his statistics from 2023‑24 when he started nine games.

Professional Growth

"I've always learned off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been so good for my professional development," he comments. "However, for a developing defender, you require match experience and I'm will require hundreds of games to be where I want to be.

"My primary desire was 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 an environment 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 improving."

Early Experience

Quansah remembers his temporary transfer to League One Bristol Rovers in the later part of that season where he debuted at professional level – multiple matches, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he notes with a grin, beginning with his first game; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe.

"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah says. "It proved a extremely important chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to playing first-team football. Each match I gained fresh insights. That's when I knew how crucial experience and match practice was. You could suggest it informed my decision in the summer."