Jarell Quansah proud of call-ups but is ‘striving’ to make senior England debut | OneFootball

Jarell Quansah feels pride at having been called into five camps by three different England managers rather than frustration at the continued wait to make his senior debut.

Part of Gareth Southgate’s provisional Euro 2024 squad, the talented 22-year-old was then selected by interim boss Lee Carsley and has played a part in every get-together under Thomas Tuchel bar one.

Quansah missed the summer meet-up as he was instead helping England win the Under-21 European Championship, which he hopes to follow up with his senior debut in October’s double-header.

Asked if it is a strange feeling waiting for his debut while feeling comfortable in the environment, the Bayer Leverkusen defender said: “Not a strange feeling. I wouldn’t say (that).

“Really delighted to be here. It’s a huge, huge honour to get called up and I’m thankful to the manager for that as well.

“But it’s always about learning off the senior players, the players who have got more and more caps than I do.

“Hopefully it’s something that I will achieve, a cap for England, and it would be a great moment for me and my family.

“It’s something hopefully I can keep working and keep striving for.”

It has been 16 months since Quansah’s first senior call-up – an important period in the defender’s development, which saw him play a role in Liverpool’s Premier League title win.

More silverware followed in the summer as he helped England win the Under-21 European Championship in Slovakia, where he also won the Under-19s title three years earlier.

“Huge,” Quansah said of the Under-21s’ success that was followed by a £35million switch to German side Leverkusen.

“I think it’s massive from a confidence point of view, especially with the summer it was with moving clubs.

“It was always the backbone of a sort of stable summer as well, where I could play with familiar players that I’ve known for years and years and create great memories with them as well.

“It’s obviously winning a trophy for your country. I managed to do it with the 19 Euros as well, and that gave me huge confidence to kick on.

“I think after that season I was playing a little bit of first team as well and went on a loan (to Bristol Rovers) and whatnot.

“This time around I’ve managed to play and feature and we won the title, so it’s been great for my development and leading onto this season with a regular sort of run of games that I’ve been on.”

Quansah hopes Thursday’s Wembley friendly against Wales provides the opportunity to show his quality on the international stage having continued the stream of young English talent moving abroad.

“I just wanted to sort of keep progressing,” Quansah said of the decision to leave Liverpool. “As a young centre-back, you need games to improve.

“I’ve always been learning off some of the best players around me at the time at Liverpool and being able to do that has been so good for my career.

“I’m 22 turning 23, I’m going to be needing hundreds of games to be where I want to be at the end of the day.

“I think overall that’s just why the decision was made and why I thought going abroad was sort of best for me.”

England have called up Manchester City’s Nico O’Reilly for the upcoming games following the withdrawal of Chelsea captain Reece James.