Would the real Robbie Savage please stand up...

By Beth Neil in

Published 23:00 30/07/10

• 

Robbie Savage is football’s Mr Marmite. Fans either love or hate the flamboyant midfield enforcer – usually depending on whether or not he’s playing against your team.

But not only is his swagger and backchat confined to the pitch, there’s far more to him than gleaming gnashers, a perma-tan and flowing highlighted locks. Take it from the person who knows and loves him best, his wife Sarah.

Speaking exclusively to the Mirror ahead of the launch of Derby County star Robbie’s controversial autobiography, called simply Savage, the mum-of-two opens her heart about Robbie.

And she reveals why she’d never take a pair of shears to that famous blond mane.

“That’s his trademark,” says Sarah. “He did cut it off once, a few years back – I really, really didn’t like it. It took something away from him and made him look just like everybody else. He didn’t have his spark.

“The people close to him know the real Robbie. He’s got the tan and the hair, but that’s not all that he’s about. He’ll quite often get up out of bed and leave the house two minutes later without even looking in the mirror. He used to go on the sunbed but he’s stopped that now. I think the tan he’s got at the moment is real.

“He can come across as a hardman on the pitch. But it’s a front. He’s a good family man, a great dad and husband – although, saying that, he’s never changed a nappy. And he never once got up in the night.”

Having sat in the stands, Sarah is well aware of the love/hate reaction Robbie inspires.

When their sons Charlie, seven, and three-year-old Freddie have been there too, she’s even challenged some of the abuse hurled at her husband. Much to Robbie’s annoyance.

She says: “The names he’s called are terrible. A couple of times when I’ve had the boys with me I’ve had to say something because I don’t want my kids to hear that sort of language.

“The boys ask me why they’re saying things about their daddy and one time Charlie was very upset about it. I said: ‘Do you mind? That’s their daddy you’re talking about.’

“But Robbie went mad when I told him. He said people had paid their money, were entitled to their opinion and that I should let him fight his own battles.”

Sarah is chatting in the living room of their impressive glass-fronted three-storey house in the heart of Cheshire’s footballer belt. There are photographs of Freddie and Charlie everywhere. Both boys are the image of their dad and, Sarah says, just as football mad.

On the walls of the main lounge are two giant canvas photos of Robbie, 35, and Sarah’s faces. There are plush sofas and spacious balconies and terraces. The place is immaculate.

“The lifestyle we have now is great,” says Sarah. “I never thought I’d have a Range Rover. I used to drive my mum’s old Peugeot 205 which I had to share with my brother. I appreciate everything we’ve got, 100%. I’ve lived on £30 a week as a student and me and Robbie are both grounded people. We know we’re very lucky, but we do live a very ordinary life.”

Robbie arrives home from pre-season training just as Sarah is getting her make-up done for our pictures.

“Can you make sure you cover up her spots?” he jokes. “Mind, she’s not bad for 38, is she?”

This prompts a withering look from Sarah who is a year younger than that. The make-up artist suggests powdering Robbie’s nose before he does a piece to camera, and Sarah sniggers: “Have you got enough powder?”

They banter affectionately throughout the photoshoot and it’s clear they adore each other. They’ve been married for eight years and together for 14. They met on a night out in Brannigans in Chester when Robbie was playing for Crewe, the club he joined after starting his career at Manchester United.

Welsh international Robbie has since gone on to play in the Premier League with Leicester, Birmingham and Blackburn before signing for Derby two years ago. Sarah had not long finished her degree in Illustration at Hull University and had three jobs while she tried to establish herself as a freelance artist.

She says: “He was really shy and I found that endearing. He wasn’t confident like he is today.

“I didn’t know who he was – I thought he looked like a surfer. He asked if he could have my number, but I had a boyfriend. But towards the end of the night I was a bit intoxicated so I gave him my number and me and my friend went on for an Indian meal.

“I got in at 3am and my dad was not happy. He said somebody called Robbie had called, checking that I’d given him the right number. Dad had gone mad.”

Robbie pursued Sarah for six months until she finished with her boyfriend and agreed to go out with him. On their first date he turned up in a car driven by his friend. And rather than walking up to the front door and ringing the bell, they beeped the horn loudly, six times.

“My dad was not impressed,” says Sarah. “It took my dad a while to come round. His opinion of footballers wasn’t very high and he didn’t want Robbie to mess me around. I’m his only daughter. But he grew to love him in the end.

“Back then Robbie wasn’t the confident person everyone knows him as today. I fell for him because he was so shy. He had to borrow money from his mum and dad to take me out. I’m glad I met him years ago before he grew into the person he is today. We’ve grown together.”

She might have the glamorous looks and designer wardrobe, but Sarah’s not interested in carving out a media name. She had to be cajoled by Robbie into giving this interview and when Freddie starts school in September she plans to resume her illustrating career.

Articulate and intelligent, she is nothing like the dippy character who turns up in Robbie’s popular Mirror column, although she doesn’t deny the odd gaffe. She knows as soon as she’s said something whether it’s going to end up in his column. “Robbie looks at me and says: ‘That’s the next one.’ OK, I hold my hands up, I do say stuff which can make me sound thick. But I don’t mean things to come out the way they do.”

During the long Savage marriage there have been no kiss and tells and not even a whiff of scandal.

Sarah says: “There are a lot of silly little girls out there who are after a footballer. But I trust him with my life.”

Their strong bond has only been strengthened as Robbie struggles to come to terms with his father’s dementia. Colin Savage, 63, has Pick’s disease, which is similar to Alzheimer’s. Robbie is donating some of the proceeds of his book to Alzheimer’s research.

“His dad was the driving force behind his career,” says Sarah. “He went to every game, home and away, to watch Robbie play. So to see him progressively fade away is very hard for Robbie.”

At the end of the photoshoot Robbie asks to see the snaps. “You don’t look half bad there, love,” he teases Sarah. “Can I take this picture to bed as a memory?”

Life as Mrs Robbie Savage might be many things. But it’s never dull.