Jason Davidson will wait on West Brom bow

Defender Jason Davidson will have to wait for his West Brom debut.

But if an his absence from tomorrow's friendly against Porto leads to action in next week's Premier League opener, it will mark the end of a nine-year journey to the English top flight that has taken in three different continents.

The Australian full-back left his home city of Melbourne at the age of 14, waved farewell to his family and set his sights on emulating his Aussie heroes.

So while the 23-year-old has more ambitions to fulfil, an appearance against Sunderland next weekend would represent a major milestone in his life.

"I left home at 14 and the dream has been to play in the Premier League," said Davidson, who signed for the Baggies on Tuesday on a two-year contract.

"I moved over to Japan first. I got a scholarship and lived there for three years. Then I went to Portugal and Holland and now I'm here in England.

"My family are all based back in Australia and I'm a proud Aussie, so home will always be Australia for me. But I'm glad to be in the UK speaking English again and the traditions in Australia and England are pretty similar, so I'm happy to be in an English-speaking country."

The son of former Socceroo Alan Davidson, the Baggies new-boy spent three years as a teenager in the Japanese youth development system before returning to his homeland to link up with Hume City.

He moved to Europe in 2009 to join Portuguese outfit Pacos de Ferreira, making a handful of top-flight appearances before moving to Dutch Eredivisie outfit Heracles.

He made more than 50 appearances and established himself as first-choice left-back as well as forcing his way into the Australia national team, with his 11 caps including all three of his country's games at this summer's World Cup.

Now Davidson is in England armed with almost a decade of globetrotting experience where he enhanced his linguistic skills.

He said: "I did pick up Japanese and Portuguese when I lived overseas. I haven't spoken Japanese much since I left but I've kept up my Portuguese because there is always a Brazilian in the team somewhere.

"My girlfriend, Natasha, will be joining me next week to live with me. She's an Aussie and it's nice to have someone to give you support off the pitch away from football."

And his transfer to Albion has given him the chance to follow in the footsteps of some childhood heroes.

"Tim Cahill and Harry Kewell had fantastic careers in the Premier League, so to watch them as a young boy and then finally to be team-mates with them was a dream come true for me," he said.

"I've just tried to work hard and emulate what they've done and thank God it's worked out so far."