"From the outside, it appears insane," 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."
Shortly after claiming victory in the U21 European Championship with England at the end of June, Quansah opted to depart from Liverpool, to go to the Bundesliga side in a £30m deal.
The significant transfer sum brought big pressure as the 22-year-old was tasked with settling in in a new country and at a club where the churn was substantial. The new manager had stepped in to replace Xabi Alonso and a host of key players were gone or going – chief among them several high-profile names, Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, prominent athletes, Granit Xhaka, established players and Jonathan Tah.
Quansah's first league appearance came on 23 August at their home ground to their opponents and the central defender found the net after the opening minutes, though the achievement was undercut by tragedy. His primary thought was Diogo Jota, who was tragically lost in a road incident. Quansah executed Jota's gamer celebration as a tribute.
"To have a goal on your first Bundesliga match, in front of home fans, after five minutes, is definitely a whirlwind," Quansah states. "But my overwhelming feeling was that it was a homage to Diogo."
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 30 August was equally disappointing. Ten Hag's team threw away comfortable advantages to draw 3-3 at their reduced opponents, the tying goal coming in added time. It was no longer his responsibility for very long. He was sacked on 1 September.
Quansah doesn't appear to be the type to fret. If calmness defines his game, it was on show during the conversation he participated in after being selected for the national team for the international friendly against their rivals and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia.
Quansah has remained focused under the current coach, the Danish tactician, and persisted in doing what he originally planned to do at the team – play. The new manager has brought stability. His team have positive results in their domestic campaign along with draws in each of their Champions League ties. But there is a more significant number that encourages Quansah, even bringing a sense of justification. It is the fact that demonstrates he has been ever-present of the team's season.
It is one that Thomas Tuchel has observed. The national team manager was a admirer last season, selecting Quansah when he announced his initial selection. After leaving him out in June so that Quansah could concentrate on the Under-21 European Championship, he gave him a late call-up in the autumn when the experienced defender was compelled to pull out.
Yet to earn his international debut, Quansah must have done something right 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 the regular starter returning. The dream is a debut. It is another thing he would surely handle with ease.
"With my new club, the club were keen on signing 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 sort of internal decision and things would remain consistent with whatever coach was to take over ... it was easy for me to make that decision.
"We had a lot of players leaving and it's consistently challenging when you see important figures leave. It has been difficult to build the leadership groups but the results we have had [under Hjulmand] demonstrate that we have got a good squad with talented individuals. It is requiring patience to develop and we are not where we want to be. But if we are getting results and not losing that is a solid foundation to begin from."
It had to have been a wrench for Quansah to depart from his long-time club, his club from the age of five, where he experienced so many significant occasions – such as the league cup triumph over their London rivals in 2023‑24 when he came on 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 unused substitute on multiple matches in the competition, his limited playing time falling short compared to his statistics from 2023‑24 when he featured more regularly.
"I've always learned off top-level professionals around me at Liverpool and it's been incredibly beneficial for my career," he comments. "But as a young centre-back, you need games and I'm going to be needing extensive playing time to be at my desired level.
"My primary desire was 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 might make mistakes at certain moments but they will see beyond that and recognize I can keep pushing and improving."
Quansah remembers his temporary transfer to the lower division club in the second-half of 2022-23 where he made his first senior appearances – multiple matches, to be exact. There were "numerous wake-up calls", he says with a grin, starting with his debut; a 5-1 defeat at Morecambe.
"That was a true eye-opener," Quansah says. "It was a really valuable chapter in my development because I wanted to make the next step to playing first-team football. Every game I learned something new. That's where I knew how crucial practical knowledge and playing games was. You could suggest it influenced my decision in the summer."
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