In the third installment of the ECHO’s Next Gen series, Keifer MacDonald examines Jarell Quansah’s prospective future following an encouraging loan spell at Bristol Rovers
Few of the young players promoted to the AXA Training Centre earlier this week would have desired the opportunity as much as Jarell Quansah.
The 20-year-old center-back was one of a handful of teenagers picked from the club’s under-18s and under-21s sides and asked to train with the first team at the start of the week while Jurgen Klopp awaited the return of his international contingent to Kirkby.
It was a positive comeback for the towering defender, who drew the attention of Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp with a beautifully weighted cross-field ball to Dominic Corness in one of the small-sided games taking place at Kirkby. “Nice ball, nice ball!” exclaimed the Reds’ manager as the ball soared through the air.
Saturday’s training was also Quansah’s first back on home turf in nearly six months, having spent the second part of the 2022/23 season on loan at Bristol Rovers in League One.
The Reds’ young star couldn’t have asked for a more well-versed coach for the early days of his professional career in England’s third tier than Joey Barton, one of the Premier League’s most contentious personalities.
Despite winning just two of his 16 League One appearances for the Pirates as Barton’s men nearly sleepwalked back to the English Football League’s bottom tier, the Warrington-born loanee’s time in the South West was extremely fruitful, and he will be hoping for more first-team opportunities at Anfield in the coming years.
The former Manchester City, Newcastle, and Burnley midfielder-turned-manager was tenacious in his pursuit of Quansah, even traveling to Kirkby in early January to watch the centre-back play in an international Premier League Cup match against Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite an astonishing two-goal salvo from the Reds’ second central defense that night, Billy Koumetio, Barton made the brave decision to leave after only 45 minutes of seeing Quansah in action.
Fast forward a few days, and the England youth international, who is also eligible to represent Barbados and Scotland, was thrust into the spotlight, specifically the left side of a back three in a 5-1 defeat away at Morcombe.
“The team conceded five goals, and there will always be questions about the defense, but I thought for a 19-year-old making his debut, he was superb,” said Barton of Quansah’s debutant.
Just a few weeks later, the 40-year-old was waxing lyrical about the Reds loanee once more, as Quansah’s EFL career began to take off. “The sky’s the limit for him, he can be whatever he wants,” Barton declared. “Unless you’re a good player, Jurgen Klopp doesn’t feel the same way about you training with the first team.”
Although Rovers could be accused of easing off the gas in the second half of the League One season, as they fell from the fringes of the play-off places to a disappointing 17th-place finish, Quansah was eager to soak up all of his time in the professional ranks, and stints across both a three and four-man defense make him an outside candidate to Liverpool’s current defensive predicament.
During his time in the Liverpool academy, where he mostly played as a right-sided centre-back, Quansah captained the under-18s to the final of the 2020/21 FA Youth Cup, with Tyler Morton and Leighton Clarkson. At the age of 20, Quansah has already signed two professional contracts with his hometown club, the most recent of which will see him return from Bristol Rovers at the end of the 2022/23 season.
Quansah, who is athletic, imposing, and blessed with a line-splitting out ball, has shown remarkable adaptability throughout his Reds career, including a brief stint at right-back before establishing himself as the man in charge of Lewtas’ under-23s team last time out.
At this point, it is unclear what the following steps in Quansah’s promising career will entail. The defender is expected to be named to Liverpool’s traveling party for their forthcoming training camp in Germany, as well as their lucrative trip to Singapore later this month for friendlies against Bayern Munich and Leicester City.
Before sanctioning any early summer exits, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his assistant, Pep Lijnders, are anticipated to thoroughly assess Quansah and the Reds’ other young stars. It would not be surprising to see Quansah courted by those in England’s second division following his performance last time out, especially after his feisty showing at the under-20s World Cup earlier this summer.
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