Simon Mignolet: Some people like to show off … I'm just not into it

Simon Mignolet likes to be understated. It is not always easy for a man of 6ft 4in with an athlete's physique to melt into the background but Sunderland's goalkeeper does his very best. Eschewing the typical "look at me" performance cars complete with personalised number plates and blacked-out windows commonly favoured by Premier League footballers, the Belgium international prefers the more subtle lines of an Audi A4.

Ask him about the intense swotting involved in the degree in political sciences he is poised to achieve this summer and Mignolet moves into full-on modesty mode. "It's just something I do in my spare time," says the 23-year-old whose outstanding form continues to leave the £9m Scotland keeper Craig Gordon warming Martin O'Neill's bench.

When the final whistle blows on this season and his Sunderland team-mates head for either the sun or Euro 2012, Mignolet will be found behind a desk at the University of Leuven sitting his finals.

"I've got two exams and one paper to complete," reports an expert on the machinations of Belgium's Senate and Chambre des Représentants who has studied remotely since arriving on Wearside from Sint-Truidense for £2m in June 2010.

"These are my last three courses so hopefully I'll graduate this summer. It's not always easy to finish training and then start working when everyone else is off enjoying themselves but now I have to keep going."

Mignolet is typical of a growing breed of highly educated, multilingual European footballers. Fluent in French, German, Dutch and English, he lives with his long-standing law graduate girlfriend Jasmine whose search for articles (a traineeship) with a firm of north-east solicitors is being assisted by Margaret Byrne, Sunderland's chief executive and a qualified lawyer. "I've spoken to Margaret and she's going to look around," Mignolet says.

Appointed as the club's CEO at the age of only 31 last summer, the impressive and understated Byrne swiftly proved she could swim after being hurled in at the deep end of a still sexist industry. A year earlier, Mignolet had survived a similarly tough initiation following an unexpected promotion to the first team.

"I was a kid and I'd come here to learn from Craig Gordon but then Craig got injured and I was given a chance," he recalls. "If you're given a chance you have to show yourself in the best light and I did well in my first couple of games. The old gaffer [Steve Bruce] was quite pleased and he stuck with me."

With Gordon troubled by serious, only recently resolved, knee problems, and Ellis Short, Sunderland's owner, unwilling to sanction a move for David James, Bruce had cause to thank Nico Vaesen, his former Birmingham goalkeeper, for tipping him off about the little-known youngster's immense potential.

Mignolet describes his Premier League induction as "hard" but he is not talking so much about adjusting to life on one of football's biggest stages but coping with driving on the left – something he initially struggled with – and living alone.

"In Belgium I'd lived with my parents, and my girlfriend was still over there then so being on my own here was the thing that was a bit hard in the beginning," he says. "When you're by yourself you have to sort out everything like the shopping and looking after the house. I really had some adapting to do."

The temptation to fill his new life with boy toys was swiftly resisted. It is not that Mignolet has any problem with peers driving flash motors or adorning themselves with designer baubles but simply that such accoutrements do not really interest him.

"I understand why players have those cars and are like that but, for me, those things are not really important," he says. "It's partly to do with how you've been brought up and partly that some people just like to show off away from the pitch. That's understandable and fine, it's just that I'm not into it."

Midfield was once an area Mignolet became obsessed with dominating but, at the age of 14, he was released by Sint-Truidense. Ever logical, he responded to this crushing blow by devising a credible plan B. "I turned goalkeeper," he said. "My father had been one and we had a goal in the back garden. He'd taught me a bit about it so I thought I'd give it a go.

"I didn't really know whether it was going to be a good choice or a bad one but I joined a small local team as a keeper and it turned out to be a really good decision. One year later it turned out that my old club wanted me again."

An accidental goalkeeper he may be but, until a wince-inducing collision with Emile Heskey during a 2-2 draw at home with Aston Villa last October, Mignolet had never suffered a significant injury. That all changed when a shattered eye socket and nose left him sidelined until New Year's Day and, until very recently, playing in a protective face guard.

When Manchester City lost 1-0 on Wearside on 1 January he was supposed to be still a month away from first-team action and, after having the mask custom-made the previous week, had only completed four gentle training sessions.

On the morning of the match, Keiren Westwood, his replacement, fell ill so, with Gordon's knee still too fragile to gamble on, O'Neill was left with one, high-risk option. "Luckily I didn't have too much time to think about things," Mignolet says. "Keiren was ill and I had no choice, I had to play. Fortunately I did well and stayed in the team."

A man who spent several weeks struggling to sleep on his back after the facial damage made lying on his side impossible attributes some real heroics against City to O'Neill's talent as a psychologist.

"Before the game I wasn't really sure what was going to happen," Mignolet acknowledges. "I'd only trained four times and my performance could have gone either way but the new gaffer gave me so much confidence that I felt really comfortable going out on to the pitch in the mask."

At the time, O'Neill, who had taken over at the Stadium of Light four weeks earlier, remained a relatively unknown quantity. "When he arrived I was injured," says Mignolet. "But when I came back into my first training session I could immediately see that he gave a lot of confidence to all the players."

For a Bruce protege, it was a nervous time but he swiftly received reassurance. "The new gaffer spoke to me privately off the field – it's something he still does – and, personally, he gave me great self-belief," says Mignolet. "When you've got that you can always give something more on the pitch, you find you can do something extra in games. It's really, really important."

Under O'Neill's tutelage, Sunderland, who host Tottenham Hotspur at Saturday lunchtime, have exchanged a looming relegation fight for mid-table security and are chasing seventh place.

"To finish seventh or eighth would be huge," Mignolet says. "The changes the gaffer's made here have all been small things but he's got the players' heads right.

"Sometimes changing little things can make a huge difference and the gaffer talking personally to people has been a big part of our improvement. His understanding of the mental side of things has been very important. We find it a lot easier to play football now."