Jarell Quansah
Jarell Amorin Quansah
Date of Birth: 29 January 2003
Current Club: Bayer Leverkusen.
Previous Clubs: Liverpool.
Loan Clubs: Bristol Rovers.
International: N/A.
Trophies Won: English Premier League 2024/25. English League Cup 2022, 2024. European Under-21 Championship 2025.
Quansah is a big strong lad, with decent pace, but a bit slow on the turn. He is very good in the air and excellent on the ball, able to ping a pass or bring it out from the back and is very comfortable with it at his feet. The problem is that he is such a huge fan of Virgil van Dijk that he tries to play just like him, when it does not suit him.
The problem is that van Dijk is a one-off, physically almost perfect, quick, strong, big and dominant in the air, and technically he is a level above Quansah as well. When Quansah is doing what van Dijk would do, it just leads to him making mistakes, as he just is not able to time the challenge or cover the ground quickly enough. It is why his performances are so error-strewn.
Over time, he will hopefully find his own style and develop it, to work with what he has and make that work for him, rather than just trying to be what he is never going to be. There is a very good defender in there, one certainly good enough to be a long term England centre-back (a low bar these days I know!), but to reach the level he should Quansah has to find himself. To be fair, he has come a long way from the point he was at early in his Liverpool career, when he found himself at a crossroads.
With a grandfather who had been a Ghana player, it was football that was his first love, but he saw little opportunity to make the next step and break into the first team, despite having captained all the way up through the youth levels at the academy. At that point, it is said that he seriously considered heading off to the USA to get a degree, and play football there at college level. Having seen his older brother failing to make the grade and drop down the league, a degree and long term career in medicine seemed a safer bet. However, the world intervened and made him rethink his plans.
Liverpool were hit by an injury crisis among their centre-backs and were forced into playing midfielders and then loaning, in almost desperation, centre-backs, only for them to also suffer injuries. In the midst of the injury crisis Liverpool were forced to turn to two academy graduates to fill the gap at the back for them in the final run in. Suddenly Quansah realised just how close he could be to making the first team.
Shortly afterwards, he signed his first professional contract and the rest, as they say is history. Though it has not been plain sailing, from a loan spell under the scummy Joey Barton at Bristol Rovers, where he was sent off after a fracas in which he headbutted someone, to having a number of sexts he sent released publicly. Added to high profile errors which had seen him relegated to the bench and even used sparingly as cover for right-back, a move to Leverkusen and a fresh start will probably do Quansah a lot of good.
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