Defender is thriving after swapping bit-part role at Liverpool to become a key player for the Bundesliga side
“From the outside, it seems crazy,” Jarell Quansah says, as he reflects on his summer just gone, when dizzying change felt like a constant. “But it is one of them … football is a crazy game.”
A quick recap. Days after winning the European Under-21 Championship with England at the end of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, his boyhood club, to go to Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.
The big fee equalled big pressure as the 22-year-old was charged with finding his feet in a new country and at a club where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had stepped in to replace Xabi Alonso as the manager and a host of key players were gone or going – chief among them Florian Wirtz, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky and Jonathan Tah.
Quansah’s Bundesliga debut came on 23 August at home to Hoffenheim and the centre-half scored after five minutes, albeit the goal was undercut by sadness. All he could think about was Diogo Jota, his former Liverpool teammate, who was killed in a car accident. Quansah performed Jota’s gamer celebration as a mark of respect.
