West Brom's Jonny Evans would love to play in La Liga one day

The cultured centre-back enjoys the style of football on the continent where players are experts at finding time and space on the ball.

He’s revealed that he regularly watches Spanish football and is even learning the language.

Evans still has two years left on the four-year contract he signed when he joined in 2015, and head coach Tony Pulis recently confirmed it would only take ‘an absolute fortune’ for the Baggies to part with their influential vice-captain.

Albion have no plans to let Evans leave anytime soon, but the 29-year-old still harbours a long-term dream to play abroad.

“I would love to play in Spain, I really would, I’ve always been fascinated with Spanish football ever since it was on on a Saturday or Sunday night on Sky,” he told The Big Interview podcast.

“With my parents we went to watch Real Madrid v Valencia, I can’t remember the year, early 2000s.

“Ronaldo scored, Zidane scored, I think Zidane had one of the best games of all time.

“I’ve looked it up on YouTube since. It was just fantastic, being able to experience that.

“It’s something that’s always interested me, playing abroad. I’ve been learning a bit of the language too.”

Evans is a crucial cog in the Albion back-line and has been one of the club’s most consistent performers over the past two seasons.

He is known for his composure in possession and smart decision making off the ball; traits which may be better suited to the continent than the Premier League.

“From a defensive point of view you want to know why are things happening, why are teams getting through,” he said. “Trying to stop things at source, being pro-active.

“Sometimes as a defender, especially in Britain, you get one or two goal-line blocks and last-ditch challenges everyone thinks you’ve had a good game, whereas I’ll be thinking ‘let’s try and stop that higher up’.

“One thing that we maybe lack in British football is the ability to have time on the ball,” he added. “We maybe don’t appreciate players who have time on the ball as much as we should.”

Last summer, Arsenal were interested in the Northern Irishman although the Baggies warned them off immediately and the Gunners eventually signed Shkodran Mustafi.

Although Albion’s season is in danger of fizzling out thanks to six defeats in eight, should they find their second wind in the remaining four game and reach a record 50 points, then Evans will be one of the players, alongside Matt Phillips, most likely to attract interest from other clubs.

However, the former Manchester United defender admitted he was learning plenty under Pulis.

“He’s been around a long time and people forget that,” said Evans. “He’s so shrewd and street-wise, I can see so many things. Players, we always question decisions, why you doing this, doing that, but then you think, this guy has been around and seen it all for a long, long time.”

And while he would like to play in Spain one day, he’s not the type of character to set himself any deadlines for the move.

“People say do you set targets or goals, but I never have,” he said. “It’s all just sort of flowed for me.”