From a distance there is something gloriously improbable about Ali al-Habsi, Wigan Athletic's delicately built, devoutly Muslim goalkeeper, the only (by his own geographical definition) Middle Eastern footballer to play in the Premier League. Here is a man who can talk with equal facility about the regional tensions of the Arab spring and his unlikely devotion to John "Budgie" Burridge, English football's grand goalkeeping eccentric of the 1980s.

Habsi had the worst game of his Premier League career last weekend, ushering into his own net two distinctly soft goals as Wigan got back to losing ways against Arsenal at the DW Stadium, a defeat that left Roberto Martínez's team bottom of the table. But West Bromwich Albion are likely to see a more familiar Habsi on Saturday afternoon, something closer to the balletically gymnastic, unexpectedly imposing figure who was voted Wigan's player of the year last season, has 70 caps for Oman and has been goalkeeper of the tournament at the last four Gulf Cups.

Habsi is known for his bounce – this is the most self-propelling of footballers, a gentle soul with a planetary-sized well of quiet self-belief who emerged from rural Oman to become a regional superstar in the petrodollar-inflected Premier League. This is the other thing about Habsi, who turns 30 at the end of this month: despite the sense of being little more than a peripheral curiosity in five largely anonymous years at Bolton Wanderers prior to his emergence at Wigan last season, he is unquestionably a superstar.

"You can't imagine how happy people are when they see me on the TV playing," Habsi says, reclining after a morning's solo training in the hail and sleet at Wigan's suburban training complex. "All Arab countries, they are really, really crazy about the Premier League. Three years ago Man United played against Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia and there were 70,000 people there. They know every player in the Premier League, they follow everything with the internet and TV. They just talk about football, football, football."

It is an enthusiasm that is often overlooked when talk turns to Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, an object of unanimous scepticism in this country.

"I think it's great to give a Middle East country the chance to have the World Cup," Habsi says, genuinely gripped by the prospect of a World Cup in his nation's near neighbour. "When South Africa got the World Cup everyone was shocked. How would it be? How would the security be? But it was fantastic. Knowing the people in Qatar, it's going to be one of the best World Cups ever.

"Many people talk about the heat. At the World Cup in 1994 in America the semi-final was played in 45C. Nobody talked about the heat then. What is the difference between the heat in America and the heat in Qatar? I've played in the stadium in Qatar. Outside the heat is 45C but when you go inside on the pitch it's 26C, because everywhere inside has got AC turned on. It's an open stadium, but all the seats and everywhere is AC and it spreads to the pitch. It won't be a problem."

Raised in a village close to Muscat, Habsi "started like all people in the Middle East, playing in the street in my village. You don't have a grass pitch, you play on sand or on stones. I started as a striker, but when I got to 16 my brother said, 'Ali, why don't you try to be a goalkeeper?' But I was just playing for fun, I never even dreamed I'd be in the national team, let alone the Premier League."

It was as a fringe player with the Oman Under-17 team that Habsi experienced his first great bounce up the footballing ladder, and the start of an enjoyably odd-couple involvement with the ever-popular Burridge, a man who reportedly slept in his goalkeeping gloves and once instructed his wife to throw fruit at him when he wasn't expecting it, in order to sharpen his reflexes. Habsi was a fringe player and a part-time fireman at Muscat airport when he caught the eye of Oman's new goalkeeping coach with a single penalty save in a training match.

"Budgie said: 'I saw how you saved that penalty and I can see in you that you can go very far. Concentrate, train hard and I will promise you I'll get you to England.' I said: 'What?' I was playing in the third division in Oman at the time." Habsi dissolves into giggles at the thought. Burridge's version is a little more to the point. Earlier this year, he told the Independent: "I looked at the size of him and thought: 'Shit!' I tested his jump. He had a metre standing jump. His father has a Tanzanian heritage and you see that in him. He's got that African jump. He could bounce!"

That bounce took him through a successful trial at Bolton as an 18-year-old, with the man he refers to with delightful sense of due respect as "Big Sam". From there he went to Norway for three years, playing for Lyn Oslo, in order to get a work permit and qualify to play in the Premier League.

"I was so happy," he says. "I was the first player from the Middle East to sign and play in Europe. To be honest I didn't know anything about Norway. When I arrived there I was shocked, the snow and the dark all day. But when you have a dream you forget everything else. It was a fantastic three years." Habsi joined Bolton in 2006.

His dedication, a sense of professional asceticism, stands out. Habsi is an extremely rare thing: a devout Muslim in a Premier League that offers a welter of ungodly distractions.

"Being a Muslim has really, really helped me a lot," he says. "Islam is a lot of dedication. Don't drink, train hard. It makes me very proud. I'm not playing in this country for myself, I'm playing for Oman and also for the region and for my faith."

He also has nothing but praise for the tolerance of the Premier League. "You hear many things, but my personal experience here and in Bolton is just support. Everything is halal here, in the canteen and in the hotel. It is brilliant. Even when it is time for prayer, the other players respect that. When we go to away games before kick-off there is a special place for me to go and pray."

Outside football, Habsi mixes with the north-west's expat Omani community via his wife, a student at Salford University, and frequents the Indian restaurants of Rusholme. Oman, with its thriving port capital, Muscat, and its Persian-Portuguese roots, is a relatively soft-edged sultanate. It remained largely untouched by the recent Arab spring. It is a subject on which Habsi chooses his words carefully.

"In Oman it is calm. Yes there's a little bit [of unrest] but our majesty is doing all the things for the people. And there is a very good relationship with England. When you hear about these things on the news it is different sometimes to what is really happening. What is happening in Libya, the people feel not everything is right and that's why they need to change. The same with all the countries. I hope they are going to have a better future. They are happy now but it's not going to be easy. What happens next is the question."

Habsi is also well-placed to comment on Manchester City's recent makeover at the hands of Sheikh Mansour and his associates, natives of Oman's grand neighbour, the United Arab Emirates.

"They are fantastic people, safe people," he says. "I'm not just talking about football. When you go to Abu Dhabi and Dubai you see how people respect them. Sheikh Mansour has the money but they don't just buy the club, they buy it and they do it properly. People in the Middle East follow Manchester City now. They're proud and they think it is their club, all the time they talk on the TV they don't say 'Manchester City', they say 'our club'."

It is a sense of belonging that Habsi has found in his short time at Wigan. If Martínez's men are in desperate need of a little bounce of their own, starting this afternoon, they could do a lot worse than taking their lead from the man in the No26 shirt.

Read the interview in Arabic here