The sale of Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen in 2025 in a €35M transfer that included a €70M buyback clause that would go live in 2027 remains a controversial move for Liverpool, a deal that on one had returned a good fee and ensured the Reds could return for the player if he developed while also robbing them of quality and depth that they could have desperately used last season.
Which is to say it was a transfer where you could understand the thinking behind it while also acknowledging it very
much didn’t help the Reds in 2025-26. And more than that it was fairly obvious when the transfer happened that it wouldn’t help the Reds in 2025-26.
Still, that’s now in the past, and the sporting director and head coach that saw Quansah as surplus are gone and the time when Quansah’s buyback clause goes live creeping closer. Which means there are stories out of Germany this week regarding his future, with Sky Germany transfer chancer Florian Plettenberg claimingthe wheels are in motion for his potential departure from Leverkusen in 2027.
The headlining names said to be keeping tabs on the situation are Real Madrid, Arsenal, and Chelsea—along with obviously Liverpool on account of that €70M buyback clause.
The question then becomes whether or not that’s a clause the Reds would see value in triggering—or just how much they even will need Quansah in 2027 assuming Jeremy Jacquet continues to shine and if Giovanni Leoni can recover from his injury successfully. Add in a cheap purchase option on early season standout Ronald Araújo, and even if Virgil van Dijk isn’t getting any younger it’s not obvious the Reds are in a position of great need.
Still, Quansah isn’t just homegrown but would be club trained for Liverpool, and he’s been a nailed-on starter at Leverkusen and a regular on the fringes of England’s starting eleven. Both of those things have value—and even just the homegrown angle would hold value to the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea, too.
At the moment, though, €70M (and a €35M loss on the back and forth of it all) seems a steep price to pay for a player who likely wouldn’t arrive as a nailed-on starter and who the Reds could have simply held onto as a high quality third-choice club trained centre half option had they been so inclined back in 2025.
