From fireman to FA Cup winning goalkeeper: Oman skipper Al-Habsi's inspiring tale

“Goalkeeping coach John Burridge took me to Manchester United to train. Ryan Giggs, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, David Beckham… they were all there and I have all those pictures with me.

Burridge took me to Old Trafford, clicked my picture, and said, ‘I promise you that you will play here one day and I will be the first one in the stadium that day’.

He was right – after six years I played there and he was the first one in. It’s all been a dream.”

Ali Al-Habsi has two distinct marks, close to each other, on the left side of his head. He was wounded while trying to knock down mangoes from a tree with stones. He says he either fell or got hit by a stone during the adventure with his brothers.

He didn’t even remember that the marks were there until someone pointed it out. They are the only visible scars of a life which has taken him from a small village in Oman where temperatures could rise to 50 degrees Celsius to Norway - where it was ‘usually minus 16 degrees Celsius’ – and finally to Wigan Athletic, where he won the FA Cup in 2013.

The 33-year-old Al-Habsi narrates the story without any drama, as if things like this happen all the time He uses the words ‘I respect’ at least 20 times in a 20-minute interview near a swimming pool in a hotel in Bengaluru — where he will lead his team against India in their aWorld Cup 2018 qualifier on 11 June.

“I was 16 when my brother asked me to play as goalkeeper and not striker. And I just said yes. I believed in him. All my life I have believed in people and respected them. And all my life it has worked,” he told Firstpost.

The only time he looked at somebody with disbelief was when football coach John Burridge (who also spotted Gurpreet Sandhu, the Indian goalkeeper who currently plays in Norway) told him that he ‘saw in Al-Habsi’s face’ that he will play in England one day:

“Imagine. Just imagine. I was 16, from Oman, and here he was telling me I would play in England. I took it as a joke. From the next day I started training with him and within two years I was told Big Sam (Allardyce) wanted me at Bolton.”

Al-Habsi was working as a fireman at the Seeb International Airport while also playing for Oman’s age-group sides. “Yes it was different working as a fireman. But see it this way — as a fireman you need strength and more importantly concentration for any emergency. That’s what you need as a goalkeeper too — strength and concentration for any emergency any time,” he said.

“I am still in touch with my friends at the fire station. I never forget my friends. Never. I respect them.”

Al-Habsi is surprisingly down-to-earth for someone who has 173 appearances in the top division of European football and 106 caps for his country, plus an FA Cup winners’ medal and a Gulf Cup title, a tournament in which he was named the best goalkeeper in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2011. He was also adjudged Norway’s best goalkeeper in 2004 and Wigan Athletic’s player of the year in 2011.

His smile is incredibly wide - it’s the smile of a content man – and it pulls you in. You wonder how this could be the man linked with Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool (a suggestion he doesn’t deny).

If there is one question that immediately comes to mind it’s this: How has he remained so grounded?

“It’s because I come from a strong culture. I believe in a strong religion and my family is very tightly bound. I have seen everything - difficult days and good days. I don’t think football is for money and just to enjoy the game. Football must make you a good man too.”

Al-Habsi still cooks for himself, and cleans his house. He still helps with the washing. As a devout Muslim, he doesn’t touch alcohol either. (“I never though about it. It never attracted me.”). He believes that ‘God gives you money and can take it away any time’. His clubs respected his wishes to pray and provided a prayer room for him at Bolton and Wigan.

“I was afraid a little when I went to England, but I’ve always believed that if you respect people they’ll respect you back. I’ve based my whole life on that principle. Eventually people will never ask you ‘how much do you make’. They will say ‘Ali was a nice man, Ali didn’t disrespect anyone’. And I want to be remembered like that – not as the guy who made a particular amount of money.”

He has also never shied away from voicing his opinion on topics far from football. In a Guardian interview , he spoke openly about the Arab Spring and did not dodge a question from Firstpost about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which is part of United States and Swiss investigations into corruption in FIFA.

“I don’t think they will take it away from Qatar,” he said. “I hope for the Middle East that they keep it there. I’m sure it will happen there.”

Al-Habsi is so attached to his home country that despite having a ‘house and everything’ in England, he eventually wants to move with his family back to Oman. Even though he’s into charity and social work, football is his calling.

“I want to open a goalkeeping academy – I want to see an Omani who came from a small village and became Ali Al-Habsi – just like me. That’s what I will work for,” he says.