Leverkusen sign Quansah for record fee - Liverpool's fifth most expensive sale ever

Buy-back clause included 

On Wednesday Bayer Leverkusen completed the signing of Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah for a club record transfer fee. According to Fabrizio Romano, the Bundesliga club will pay an initial transfer fee of €35 million with the deal potentially reaching €40.8m if all add-ons are met. Such a move will surpass Leverkusen’s previous record signing, which was the €32m the club paid Hoffenheim for midfielder Kerem Demirbay in 2020. 

Coincidentally, Quansah’s departure from Anfield will also be etched in Liverpool’s own record books too. The initial fee alone will put the young defender above Xabi Alonso’s €34.5m move from Liverpool to Real Madrid in 2010 as the club’s sixth most expensive departure and will be Liverpool’s biggest sale since Fabinho departed for Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad for €46.7m last summer. Quansah’s sale now means that Liverpool have earned €63.3m from player sales this summer, following the departure of Caoimhín Kelleher, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Nat Phillips. 

Quansah came through the youth ranks at Liverpool and made his senior debut for the club in August 2023, when he came on as a substitute against Newcastle in the Premier League. In his first full season with the first team, Quansah made 17 league appearances, starting 13 games and picking up 1,190 minutes of game time. However, that figure dipped to just 13 appearances and four starts in the 2024/25 season, with the young talent earning just 488 minutes of league time. 

With Liverpool manager Arne Slot clearly preferring a defensive partnership of Virgil Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez preferred as an option off the bench, Quansah was somewhat forced to consider his options this summer and has elected to make a move elsewhere for more game time. Fortunately for the young talent, Leverkusen will be in desperate need of a new central defender, having recently parted ways with long-term defensive stalwart Jonathan Tah. 

However, that doesn’t mean that Quansah won’t return to Anfield one day. According to Romano, Liverpool have inserted a buy-back clause in the deal allowing the young player to depart for Germany. Such a figure reportedly stands at €60m, plus add-ons, which perhaps suggests that Liverpool may yet turn to Quansah as a long-term successor to Van Dijk or direct replacement for Konate, should the Frenchman fail to sign a contract extension. But in the meantime he’ll almost certainly benefit from some regular first team football in the German top-flight.