“Hopefully I Can Reach That Potential.” – Jarell Quansah On Liverpool Exit & Learning From ‘Unique’ VVD | OneFootball

Liverpool have been busy in the transfer market this summer with the captures of Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz capturing the imaginations of supporters ahead of the defence of the Premier League title.

However, it hasn’t just been incomings at Anfield as Jarell Quansah left Merseyside for pastures new in Germany, having struggled to recapture the form of his breakout season.

The young central defender was a revelation under Jurgen Klopp during the 2023/24 campaign but having been substituted at half time on the opening day by Arne Slot, Quansah never really got up and running under the Dutchman.

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As such, The Reds saw fit to cash in on their academy graduate with a £35million sale to Leverkusen, albeit Richard Hughes has ensured the insurance policy exists of a future buyback clause.

Now Quansah has joined up with his new teammates in Rio De Janeiro, and Phillip Arens of SportBild caught up with the former Liverpool man…

What you have left in Liverpool and with the new team, you came here as a Premier League and European champion, so what do you bring from Liverpool to Leverkusen? “I think there’s a lot of things I’ve learnt from Liverpool,  and I can’t thank everyone there enough, the players, the staff and everything like that, but it’s me trying to find my own way in football now, and being able to step up, I feel like I’m at the stage where I can. I know I can bring a lot, it’s just trying to bed my way in and play the best football I can.”

First reaction when Leverkusen called? “Yeah, I think they were very, very keen, and the way they approached me was very professional in a very, very good way.  So for me, when I got the taste of it and knew I could express myself in a first-team environment, it was always going to be Leverkusen from then.”

I believe there were other offers, why did you choose Leverkusen? “You can read into 100 rumours that there’s going to be 1,000 teams that are going to be interested if you look online, but I think for me, they’re the ones I knew with real intent and a real desire, and I think it’s a new era for Leverkusen as well. They’ve had such a good past few years, but obviously, a new coach and new players who have to come in, I think it’s a good opportunity for me and other players to prove ourselves and learn under a good coach who plays really attractive football.”

The fans of Leverkusen, what can they look forward to, what kind of player are you? “I feel like I can do a bit of everything, really. Sometimes I like to be aggressive and hard in tackles and stuff like this, and sometimes I can be calm and composed on the ball and stuff like that. I feel like I can develop my game to be anything I want, really. I’ve had key players in the past who I’ve been able to learn off, and I like to take little things off different players, so I’m sure I’ll be able to do the same here as well.”

Is Van Dijk the player you learned the most from? “I can’t say just one, to be honest, because he’s so unique in what he has in terms of his build and stuff like that, so you can’t exactly replicate everything, but I can look at every centre-back I’ve played with at Liverpool. They’ve been key in how I’ve developed as a player, and even with the England set-up as well. I’ve been able to learn from some of them players, who are all obviously world-class players as well, so hopefully I can reach that potential.”