Jarell Quansah has completed a £30 million transfer to Bayer Leverkusen, where he will play under former Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag.
In an emotional Instagram post Quansah reflected on his time joining the club at five years old and said, “Liverpool will always hold a special place in my heart.”
With the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold earlier in the summer, this marks a second significant departure from Liverpool’s youth academy. With the substantial fee, Quansah becomes the most expensive sale that the Liverpool Academy has made from its youth setup.
Quansah only featured in 12 Premier League games, starting on four occasions, two of which came after the title was sealed. He started the first game of the season in Arne Slot’s Premier League opener at Ipswich but was pulled off for Ibrahima Konate at half-time and didn’t start in the Premier League again until December when he played all 90 minutes against Newcastle.
Structure of the deal for Liverpool
Fabrizio Romano revealed the structure of the deal, which is very favourable for Liverpool and their PSR situation. The £30 million up-front fee counts as pure profit, given that Liverpool produced the defender from the age of five for 17 years.
The deal also includes up to £5 million in add-ons. Interestingly, the deal will include a €60 million buy-back clause, which, by current exchange rates, would allow the defender to return to Anfield from 2027 for approximately £51 million.
The date of this buy-back clause is interesting, with that lining up with the expiry of Virgil Van Dijk’s new contract, which was signed this year. This ultimately would allow them to bring back Quansah as a Van Dijk replacement if he were to kick on to the level that many see that he could become.
Liverpool’s link to Leverkusen
Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen have had some close links this summer, and this also may have been some transfer business which was included amongst other negotiations.
Liverpool started the summer with the signing of Jeremie Frimpong from Leverkusen for his release clause in the £30m region, similar to this transfer.
They then went on to sign Florian Wirtz for what could become a record Premier League transfer of £116.5 million. Both of these players were, of course, managed by Xabi Alonso, who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005, and Wirtz mentioned in his arrival day video at Liverpool about the influence of Alonso on choosing Liverpool.
Quansah will wear the number four at Leverkusen, a number that was worn by Sami Hyypia at Leverkusen, who moved to Germany in 2009, having previously captained Liverpool and also won the Champions League in Istanbul in 2005.
