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"To an observer, it appears crazy," the young defender says, 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 Brief Summary

Shortly after claiming victory in the European Under-21 Championship with England at the conclusion of June, Quansah decided to leave Liverpool, to join Bayer Leverkusen in a £30m deal.

The significant transfer sum equalled big pressure as the young defender was charged with settling in in a new country and at a team where the churn was dramatic. Erik ten Hag had taken over to replace Xabi Alonso and a number of key players were departing or already left – chief among them several high-profile names, key squad members, influential figures, Amine Adli, Granit Xhaka, Lukas Hradecky 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 the opening minutes, though the goal was undercut by sadness. 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 mark of respect.

"To have a goal on your Bundesliga debut, in front of home fans, after the opening moments, is definitely a whirlwind," Quansah says. "However, my dominant emotion was that it was a homage 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 narrow loss and the following game on 30 August 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 added time. It was not Ten Hag's team for very long. He was sacked on 1 September.

Maintaining Composure

Quansah does not come across as the kind to worry. If composure defines his game, it was evident during the conversation he participated in after joining the national team for the Wembley 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 originally planned to do at the club – compete. The new manager has brought stability. His squad have three wins and one draw in their domestic campaign 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 one which shows he has been ever-present of the club's campaign.

National Team Attention

It is something that the England head coach has observed. The national team manager was a admirer previously, selecting Quansah when he named his first squad. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the Under-21 European Championship, he provided him with a last-minute inclusion in the autumn when John Stones was compelled to pull out.

Still to win his international debut, Quansah must have impressed sufficiently in practice sessions and around the camp because he was named at the outset in the manager's 24‑man group for Wales and Latvia, essentially as a additional defensive option with Stones fit again. The aspiration is a debut. It is one more milestone he would surely handle with ease.

Career Choices

"With my new club, the team were interested in me for a while and that's not just from the coach," Quansah says. "They were interested prior to his arrival. So understanding it was a type of internal decision and nothing would change with which manager was to take over ... it was easy for me to make that decision.

"We had a numerous squad members departing and it's consistently challenging when you lose key players. It has been tough to establish new hierarchies but the outcomes we have had [under Hjulmand] show 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 solid foundation to begin from."

Leaving Childhood Club

It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to depart from Liverpool, his club from the age of five, where he enjoyed so many significant occasions – such as the league cup triumph over Chelsea in the previous season when he came on as an late replacement.

Quansah was also involved in the previous campaign's Premier League title triumph. Yet his perspective of much of that was not the one he would have preferred. He was an unused substitute on multiple matches in the league, his four starts and nine appearances falling short compared to his statistics 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 so good for my career," he comments. "But as a young centre-back, you require match experience and I'm going to be needing hundreds of games to be at my desired level.

"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 throughout the squad. I wanted an environment where they can have confidence that I might make mistakes at times but they will see beyond that and recognize I can keep pushing and improving."

Early Experience

Quansah recalls his loan to League One Bristol Rovers in the later part of that season where he debuted at professional level – 16 of them, to be exact. There were "multiple reality checks", he notes with a smile, starting with his first game; a heavy loss at Morecambe.

"That represented a genuine revelation," Quansah says. "It proved a really valuable part of my career because I aimed to take the next step to playing first-team football. Each match I learned something new. That's where I understood how valuable practical knowledge and match practice was. You could say it informed my choice in the off-season."