VIDEO: ‘I had to go abroad’ -back Jarell Quansah explains decision to quit Liverpool for Bayer Leverkusen

Former Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah has given his reasons for leaving Arne Slot’s side in favour of a move to Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen. The 22-year-old, who has been included in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the fixtures against Wales and Latvia, explained how he needed to be playing more regularly, and that was not guaranteed if he’d decided to stay in the Premier League.

He told reporters ahead of England’s international friendly meeting with Wales: “I’m not too sure what it was but the club were interested in me for a while and that’s not just from the manager (former Bayer Leverkusen head coach Erik ten Hag) but before that. They were interested before he got appointed as well, so knowing that it was an internal decision and nothing would change with which manager was to come in and stuff like that, then it was easy for me to make that decision [to join Leverkusen].

“For myself, I had to make that step and go abroad because I wanted game time and when you’re at a team like Liverpool it’s not promised because there’s world-class players all over the pitch. I just wanted somewhere where I know they can trust that I might make mistakes at times, and I can develop under that and keep pushing and pushing. I’m glad I’m able to show that now.

“Knowing I could play at a really high level, with top players, and playing in the Champions League on a regular basis, that was another big thing. Competition in the Premier League is so high now, whereas if you try and maybe move to another top Premier League side, you might not be playing in the Champions League, so there’s a lot of things that go into it (making the decision to leave) and I wanted to be playing regularly at a high level.”