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FOOTIE MAD WITH MAYA

Frances Hardy

TV’S hottest young star Maya Jama on teaming up with Peter Crouch for a rip-roaring new show that will make Euro 2020 go with a bang

there and taught Maya the language. She tells me her love of the game is rooted in childhood when her now estranged father, who is from Somalia, took her to watch their local team, Bristol Rovers. ‘I remember Dad taking me and my brother Omar to Wembley for a play-off final. I dressed up, we went on the train, waved our flags and sang songs. It was great.’

Her father spent much of her early life in and out of prison, often for crimes involving violence. When she was three she inadvertently told the police where her dad was hiding – under a bed – when they called at the family home. Thereafter there were regular visits to her dad in jail. ‘We’d get in the car, there were duvets and sweets and it felt like a road trip.’

But as she grew older, the sense her father had a choice – he didn’t have to commit those crimes – dawned. She was about ten when she opted to stop visiting him. That changed in 2017 when she presented a documentary, When Dad Kills, about children who grew up with violent fathers, and contacted him again. ‘I wanted to try to understand why he’d done the things he did. We had a conversation but it was difficult. I didn’t get the answers I was looking for. We’re not in contact at all now. But my stepfather, Martin, was a very good role model, calm and sensible – and he loved my mum very much. So I got to see how a man should treat a woman.’

Although not academic, Maya was fiercely ambitious. She was 16 when she decided to go to London in pursuit of her goals, and there she met her first boyfriend Rico Gordon. Their happiness ended tragically when he was murdered at the age of 21, killed by a ricocheting bullet intended for someone else during a fight in Bristol in 2011. Two men were jailed for life for his murder. The grief Maya felt was crushing. ‘It’s a massive reality check,’ she says now. ‘People can just go, no matter how young. But I got through it. I prayed. I always have and I still do.’

At the time, learning her trade presenting events for Youtube channels, she was sharing a house with a family member who had a serious drug habit. ‘I’d lock myself in my bedroom, but I had food stolen, a camera. I never got involved in drugs and it was crazy when I look back. I stayed because I was grateful for a roof over my head. But I never lost faith or hope. I learnt from it. As hard as things get, everything will be OK in the end.’

These days she’s recognised wherever she goes, and one admirer posted a poem about her on an advertising hoarding outside Shoreditch train station. Did she find that spooky? ‘Actually

‘I didn’t just swan into TV. I worked really hard’

I thought it was cute and quite flattering.’ There have been detractors though, trolls who’ve attacked her on the internet. ‘There have been loads of things. “B***h I hate you. Why are you even here?” But you just get used to that. It’s not real life.’ What worries her more are the people who assume, ‘I just swanned into TV or got here because I’m pretty or for a million other reasons. Actually, I worked really hard and the only way to silence comments like that is to continue to work really hard.’

I wonder about her ambitions and she says she’d love to be a Bond girl. ‘I’m putting that out there because I’m trying to get into acting and that’s my dream. I think I’d like to be a villainy Bond girl; something against the norm. A little bit evil or funny.’ She scotches rumours she’s to appear on Strictly though. ‘I’ve been asked but it’s not the right time,’ she says. As soon as possible there’ll be a holiday. Where though? ‘Anywhere there’s a beach and some bars,’ she smiles, and down-to-earth girl that she is, adds, ‘Ramsgate would be quite nice.’

Crouchy’s Year Late Euros: Live continues tomorrow at 10.30pm on BBC1.

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