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SHE’S DATING ENGLAND’S HAT-TRICK HERO THEO WALCOTT, BUT MELANIE SLADE IS NOT YOUR AVERAGE FOOTBALLER’S GIRLFRIEND. WORKING HARD FOR A DEGREE, SHE’S PART OF THE NEW BREED OF STUDENT WAGS WITH BRAINS AND BEAUTY

Interview by Gemma Calvert Photography by Jonathan Keane

At first glance, Melanie Slade looks just like your stereotypical WAG. Long, golden hair that owes as much to her hairdresser's highlighting skills as it does to Mother Nature, a healthy passion for fashion and the enviable figure to wear it.

But despite dating Arsenal and England player Theo Walcott, Mel is very definitely not your average footballer's girlfriend.

The 19 year old isn't remotely interested in getting a giant rock on her engagement finger and – praise be! – she'd rather rent dingy student digs than stay in Theo's pad near Hemel Hempstead while she gets her physiotherapy degree. Wannabe WAGs, look and learn…

If that's not enough to prove she is a refreshing change from the norm, she doesn't own any designer clothes and the pair of dVb jeans that Victoria Beckham gave her at the 2006 World Cup, she accidentally left on the plane home. Oops.

"I'm not a designer clothes kind of girl," she confides with a shy smile.

"I love Topshop, I'm a big fan of River Island because of its jeans, and I could shop all day in Aldo. I love shoes but I don't consider myself glamorous. I always dress down and wear jeans – but I do team them with sexy high heels."

Her boyfriend of three years is currently flavour of the month after giving England a confidence boost by scoring a hat-trick against Croatia in the World Cup qualifiers – a game Melanie watched in the local pub with her mum.

Theo is also tall, dark, handsome and, Melanie confides, a talented artist who loves drawing portraits of her. We bet his England teammates didn't know that about their star player…

With all these credentials, what woman wouldn't be rushing to get Theo down the aisle? Well, his girlfriend for one.

"If Theo asked me to marry him tomorrow, I don't know what I'd say," she admits.

"My priority is uni, and while I'm there I don't want to be dealing with the extra pressure of a wedding."

So will she marry him one day? "I don't know if I will do," she says. "But we're in love 100 per cent," she hastens to add.

Mel is part of a new breed of WAGs that would rather get a degree than get their hands on the latest Chloé clutch. Joining her as a student WAG – or SWAG – is Claudine Keane, wife of Liverpool player Robbie.

She has a double first in economics and finance from University College Dublin. Then there's Lisa Roughead, wife of Manchester United's Michael Carrick, who has a business degree and now runs her own company.

In fact, Mel often seems bemused by all the attention her relationship attracts.

"People ask me what it's like to date Theo Walcott the footballer and I say I don't know, because I only know what it's like to date Theo," says Melanie.

"We're just a normal couple and I'm happy to carry on with the way things are for now."

It's this desire to be normal that has seen Melanie decamp from the £3million mansion Theo bought his parents – and still shares with them – to student digs in Colliers Wood, south London.

She's just started a physiotherapy degree at nearby St George's University, after gaining two Bs and a C at A level. Her ambition is to work in hospitals helping rehabilitate patients.

And to make sure she fits in with other students, she is planning to put away all the expensive gifts Theo – who earns £15,000 a week – has bought her.

They include a £10,000 diamond ring he gave her for her 17th birthday and a £7,000 Tiffany diamond bracelet.

Instead she will live on a student budget – although she will continue to drive her £20,000 VW Beetle, a gift from Theo, and, if things get too tough, she can escape to the flat he has conveniently bought just around the corner.

So far, so very unWAG-like. However, Melanie admits that she has taken some tips on how to conduct herself from the Queen of WAGs herself – Posh, whose advice is surprisingly sensible.

"Victoria told me: ‘Don't revolve your life around football, make sure you have your own life too.'

"She also said it was important to keep parts of our relationship private. Theo and I have stuck by that and we'd rather stay in than go to a glitzy premiere," she says.

Has she spoken to Victoria since the Beckhams moved to Los Angeles?

"I think Victoria might have a bit more to do than pick up the phone and call me," she laughs.

It should come as no surprise that Melanie is so down to earth. She was born in Southampton, to John, who runs a PR company, and Sheila, a teacher.

Her life was without incident until Melanie was 12, when her family was rocked by the news that her older sister Sarah, then 17, had cancer of the kidney.

"There was panic for a little while. It was the biggest shock we'd ever had. She had a lump in one of her kidneys but fortunately the doctors could remove it all. She was in hospital for a couple of months," says Melanie, who last year raised thousands for charity by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

"I was already close to my sister, but that experience brought us closer. It affected me, and the way I value my own life."

She adds that there haven't been any family dramas since, but it's fair to say their lives were all turned upside down when Theo was selected for the England World Cup squad in 2006 at the age of 17, having never played a Premiership game. Immediately his timid 17-year-old girlfriend found herself the centre of attention.

However she didn't seem to let it go to her head, joining the other WAGs late at England's training camp in Portugal because she was sitting an exam.

And even though it's two years since she was thrust into the limelight, she's still overwhelmed by some of the invitations she receives.

Earlier this year she was asked, along with Theo's family, to the home of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, a die-hard Arsenal fan.

"I was in Matt's house thinking: ‘Oh my goodness, I can't believe this is me,'" recalls Melanie. "We spent the evening there and Matt was being really funny, just like on Little Britain."

Melanie is also refreshing when it comes to the topic of plastic surgery. A size 8 and a C-cup, she says she has no intention of enhancing her natural assets.

"I think these days you're quite different if you don't have surgery," she says. "Theo is really complimentary. I don't think he'd be too keen on me having surgery. He's very much into the natural look."

While Melanie doesn't hang out with many other WAGs, there is one – apart from Mrs Beckham – who she admires.

"I'm hugely inspired by Cheryl Cole. She's come such a long way after the tough time she's had," she says.

Does she think Theo would ever be unfaithful, like Cheryl's husband Ashley?

"I don't worry when Theo goes away with the club – they're away to play football. I don't even worry when he's out with his friends. I totally trust him. I know he'd never stray."

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: REX MELANIE WEARS GREEN DRESS AND SHOES, TOPSHOP; RING, FREEDOM AT TOPSHOP. MELANIE WEARS PURPLE DRESS, TOPSHOP