Maya Jama is a household name in the UK from her radio shows, TV hosting roles, and relationship with Manchester City defender Ruben Dias, but only some hardcore fans will remember her debut as the ‘Football Virgin’
Maya Jama is one of the most famous presenters and personalities in the UK but only hardcore fans of hers and football YouTube in the early 2010s will remember when she made her debut as the ‘Football Virgin’.
The 31-year-old is known mainly for hosting Love Island but also on her various TV and radio shows, but Maya also reached a whole new audience of football fans with her relationship with Manchester City centre-back Ruben Dias. The couple dated for 18 months before splitting in May.
However, some football fans who remember the Copa 90 days with the likes of Poet and David Vujanic, and the odd sprinkle of KSI when he was still a lad shouting at FIFA in his bedroom, may have come across Maya without even knowing it.
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As an ambitious 18-year-old, Maya had a series on the Copa 90 YouTube channel where she was the ‘Football Virgin’ – a totally new fan wanting to learn about the beautiful game from the laws of the game, understanding the importance of the sport to millions of fans, being engrossed in fan culture, and eventually announcing which team she would support.
The first video of the series was uploaded in May 2013 and featured Maya explaining how her journey would play out, from fans sending her to their local pub to witness the atmosphere of a match day to taking in German fan culture at the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.
Maya, who now has a reported net worth of around £2million, went from Portsmouth to meet John PFC Westwood, also known as Mr Pompey, to defunct Hereford United, now reborn as Hereford FC. From breaking down on the side of the motorway coming back from Villa Park to watching Bradford take on Northampton in the League 2 play-off final under the arch and even heading to a waterpark in Brazil before watching Fortaleza on the eve of the World Cup.
She also showed off her skills during a kickabout in the park before putting her newfound knowledge of the laws of the game to the test as a referee. And of course played FIFA against the FIFA Playa (who the non-league crowd will know as the founder of Hashtag United, Spencer Owen) in possibly the most bizarre crossover of all-time and hilariously the most viewed out of any video in the series!
Maya culminated the season by heading to a German pub in the middle of London to spend the day with Bayern and Dortmund fans at the boozer drinking steins, wearing lederhosen and eating sausages.
Despite Maya saying at the start of the series that she had no idea about the beautiful game, it was likely a little white lie with her family huge fans of her local club Bristol Rovers. Her dad even had a season ticket holder at the Memorial Stadium.
Maya also responded to fans who were convinced they recognised her from YouTube, while stunning others by revealing how she started her incredible rise to stardom.
In a tweet, Maya said: “For those that don’t know I used to be a football presenter on @Copa90 when I was like 18 and one of the series I hosted was “football virgin” still on YouTube now.
“Ended up choosing Bristol Rovers as my home team cause of the fam and later loved West Ham.”
At the end of her Football Virgin series in 2013, the presenter was asked to pick a team to support and said: “I went with Bristol Rovers because I am from Bristol. My family support Bristol Rovers, that’s their local team.”