ð Share this article Leverkusen's Quansah Keeps Calm and Carries On in His Steady Rise to Football Fame "To an observer, it appears crazy," the young defender remarks, as he reflects 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 U21 European Championship with the English national team at the end of June, Quansah opted to depart from his childhood club, to go to the Bundesliga side in a ÂĢ30m deal. The big fee brought big pressure as the young defender was tasked with settling in in a new country and at a club where the turnover was dramatic. The new manager had taken over to succeed the previous coach and a host of star performers were departing or already left â including Florian Wirtz, key squad members, influential figures, prominent athletes, experienced professionals, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah. League Introduction Quansah's Bundesliga debut came on August 23rd at home to their opponents and the centre-half found the net after the opening minutes, albeit the achievement was overshadowed by tragedy. His primary thought was Diogo Jota, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah executed his teammate's signature celebration as a mark of respect. "Scoring on your first Bundesliga match, in front of home fans, after the opening moments, is certainly a rollercoaster," Quansah says. "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 the German club. From the promising start in their opening league fixture, they fell to a narrow loss and the next match on August 30th was just as bad. The squad threw away 2-0 and 3-1 leads to finish level at 10-man Werder Bremen, the equaliser coming in stoppage time. It was not Ten Hag's team for very long. His dismissal came on 1 September. Staying Focused Quansah does not come across as the type to fret. If composure defines his game, it was evident during the interview he participated in after being selected for England for the Wembley friendly against Wales and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia. Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and continued to do what he always intended to do at the team â play. Hjulmand has established consistency. His squad have positive results in four league matches along with draws in each of their European matches. But there is a more significant number 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 something that Thomas Tuchel has noted. The England head coach 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 the autumn when John Stones was compelled to pull out. Still to win his first cap, Quansah must have done something right in practice sessions and within the squad environment because he was named at the beginning in the manager's 24âman group for the upcoming matches, effectively as a fifth centre-back with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a debut. It is another thing he would surely handle with ease. Career Choices "With my new club, the club were interested in me for a while and that's not just from the coach," Quansah says. "They were interested before he got appointed. So understanding it was a type of internal decision and nothing would change with which manager was to take over ... it was straightforward for me to choose this path. "We had a numerous squad members departing and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] demonstrate that we have developed a competitive team with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to build 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." Liverpool Departure It had to have been a difficult separation for Quansah to leave Liverpool, his team since childhood, where he enjoyed so many memorable moments â such as the league cup triumph over their London rivals in 2023â24 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 one he would have preferred. He was an non-playing reserve on 25 occasions in the competition, his limited playing time falling short compared to his statistics from 2023â24 when he started nine games. Career Development "I've always learned off some of the best players around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial for my professional development," he says. "However, for a developing defender, you need games and I'm going to be needing hundreds of games to be where I want to be. "My primary desire was 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 somewhere where they can trust that I could errors at certain moments but they will look under that and see I can keep pushing and pushing." Early Experience Quansah remembers his temporary transfer to the lower division club in the later part of that season where he made his first senior appearances â 16 of them, to be precise. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a smile, beginning with his debut; a heavy loss at Morecambe. "That was a true eye-opener," Quansah reflects. "It was a really valuable part of my career because I wanted to make the subsequent progression to playing first-team football. Every game I gained fresh insights. That's where I understood how crucial practical knowledge and match practice was. You could suggest it influenced my choice in the off-season."