Jonny Evans: ‘Defender retires as one of Northern Ireland’s greats’

Bookended by outings against Spain almost 18 years apart, Jonny Evans’ Northern Ireland career has ended as it began.

Having confirmed his international retirement on Thursday, across more than a century of caps in between those first and last outings for his country, the 36-year-old Manchester United defender ensured that one of the most memorable debuts in Northern Ireland’s history preceded one of the finest careers in the green jersey.

It was Lawrie Sanchez who gave him his first taste as a senior international when Evans was an 18-year-old on loan at Belgian side Royal Antwerp.

Legend has it the manager was only made aware of the young defender in the under-21s after his assistant Terry Gibson’s son noticed him in the computer game Championship Manager.

Fresh off a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Iceland at Windsor Park, Sanchez wanted fresh faces for a training game but was so taken by Evans’ performance that he included him from the start only days later against a side who in the years to come would win the World Cup and a pair of European Championships.

Going against a forward line consisting of David Villa, Fernando Torres and Raul would have been daunting for any defender – to do so on your international debut, and out of position at left-back, felt a gargantuan task.

And yet, while it was David Healy’s hat-trick in the 3-2 win that was destined to be shown time and time again, how Evans saw off the challenge of three of the game’s superstars down the Spanish right flank would stay with Sanchez.

“All three of them knew there was this young kid playing his first game and were probably thinking they would be able to get something out of him,” Sanchez told BBC Sport NI in 2022.

“But they didn’t. Jonny looked as though he had played 100 games for us at left-back.”