If you didn’t know who Jarell Quansah was before this season- or even a few games into it- you could have been forgiven.
He was on loan to Bristol Rovers and played 16 games in League One, as well as chipping in for Liverpool’s second squad, so it’s not like fans of the first team would have really seen him.
Fast forward just a few months, and the 21-year-old is a huge part of Liverpool’s push for a historic quadruple. So how exactly did we get here?
Let’s take a look into the early stages of the journey for yet another player whose star is rising amidst the injury-forced youth movement of Jürgen Klopp’s final Liverpool season.
Quansah has been part of the Liverpool organization for almost quite literally his whole life; he came over from Woolston Rovers in his hometown of Warrington to join Liverpool’s youth program when he was just five years old.
His time with the Liverpool youth squads was distinguished, as he captained the U-18s to an FA Youth Cup Final in 2021, leading a side that actually included fellow rising star Conor Bradley.
Midway through that season, in February, he signed his first senior contract with the club, just days after his 18th birthday.
In the 2021-22 season Quansah captained the U-18s once more in the UEFA Youth League, played in the Premier League 2, and helped to win the Lancashire Senior Cup. Interestingly enough, this year was also the first time he appeared on team sheets for the senior club, although he never did quite see the pitch.
Midway through the 2022-23 campaign, effectively a lost season for the senior club, Liverpool’s coaches made the wise choice to send Quansah off on a half-season loan to Bristol Rovers, where he finally made his senior debut the day before his 20th birthday. The squad didn’t find much success, but Quansah made an immediate impact, and Rovers manager Joey Barton spoke very highly of the loanee’s potential.
Quansah’s first team Liverpool debut came in one of the most fascinating games of this season, the 2-1 comeback win over Newcastle.
He came in when the Reds were losing 1-0 with 10 men on the pitch, and thus was present just long enough to experience the full comeback.
Since then, Quansah has been a semi-regular player for Liverpool, having made six Premier League starts and several others as Klopp balances multiple competitions as well as injuries.
Quansah came on for the second half of extra time in the EFL Cup final against Chelsea, and was once again on the pitch for the dramatic finish of a big win, notably one of many Liverpool’s homegrown youngsters who saw the team to victory.
It marked the first trophy he’s won with the club, and there’s no remote reason to believe it’ll be the last. Will his next come this May, as the Premier League, Europa League, and FA Cup will all come to a close within about one week of another?
We’ll have to wait a few more weeks and see, but what seems quite apparent is that Quansah will be part of the club’s plans for a good long time, and could even be a major anchor of the defense when the likes of Virgil van Dijk age out.