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"To an observer, it seems crazy," the young defender says, as he looks back on his summer just gone, when rapid transformation felt like a constant. "But it is one of them ... football is a crazy game."

A Quick Recap

Days after claiming victory in the U21 European Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah decided to leave his childhood club, to join Bayer Leverkusen in a multi-million pound transfer.

The significant transfer sum brought big pressure as the 22-year-old was tasked with finding his feet in a foreign land and at a team where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had stepped in to replace the previous coach and a number of key players were gone or going – including Florian Wirtz, Piero Hincapié, influential figures, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, established players and Jonathan Tah.

Bundesliga Debut

Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on August 23rd at their home ground to Hoffenheim and the central defender scored after five minutes, though the goal was undercut by sadness. All he could think about was his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah executed 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."

Initial Struggles

The defender could have been excused for questioning what he had signed up for at Leverkusen. From the promising start in their opening league fixture, they fell to a narrow loss and the following game on August 30th was equally disappointing. Ten Hag's team squandered comfortable advantages to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, 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 composure characterizes his playing style, it was evident during the conversation he gave after being selected for England for the international friendly against their rivals and the qualifying match against their next opponents.

Quansah has kept his head down under the new Leverkusen manager, Kasper Hjulmand, and persisted in doing what he originally planned to do at the team – play. Hjulmand has established consistency. 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 motivates the player, even bringing a measure of vindication. It is the one which shows he has been ever-present of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is one that the England head coach has noted. The national team manager was a admirer previously, selecting Quansah when he named his first squad. After omitting him in June so that Quansah could focus on the youth tournament, he gave him a late call-up in September when John Stones was compelled to pull out.

Yet to earn his international debut, Quansah must have done something right in practice sessions and within the squad environment because he was named at the beginning in Tuchel's squad selection for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The dream is a debut. It is one more milestone he would surely handle with ease.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the club were keen on signing me for a considerable time and that's not just from the coach," Quansah says. "Their interest existed before he got appointed. So understanding it was a sort of organizational choice and nothing would change with which manager was to come in ... it was easy for me to choose this path.

"There were a numerous squad members departing and it's always tough when you see important figures leave. It has been tough to build the leadership groups but the results we have had [under Hjulmand] demonstrate 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 not losing 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 experienced so many memorable moments – such as the league cup triumph over their London rivals in 2023‑24 when he was introduced as an late replacement.

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 multiple matches in the competition, his limited playing time falling short compared to his statistics from 2023‑24 when he started nine games.

Career Development

"I consistently developed off some of the best players around me at my former club and it's been so good for my career," he comments. "However, for a developing defender, 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 top-level club, it's not promised 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 see beyond that and see I can keep pushing and pushing."

Foundation Building

Quansah recalls his loan to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he debuted at professional level – 16 of them, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a smile, starting with his debut; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That was a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It was a extremely important part of my career because I wanted to make the subsequent progression to regular senior competition. Each match I learned something new. That's when I understood how crucial experience and playing games was. You could suggest it informed my choice in the summer."