KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — Ask any Malaysian football fan who Reem Shahwa is and they would immediately tell you she is that pretty face often seen on TV in a Liverpool FC kit interviewing famous personalities for Astro SuperSports’ Football Overload.

Earlier this year, she was appointed the new international presenter for the official Liverpool Football Club TV which means she had the opportunity to work with the media department of her favourite club.

Interestingly, it was her blog thekopsalad which got her the gig at Liverpool Football Club TV. The head for international digital development for Liverpool Football Club TV came across her blog (Kops are what Liverpool fans call themselves) and then proceeded to watch her clips on YouTube.

But how many of Reem’s many fans out there know the 28-year-old who once wanted to follow in the footsteps of CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

– Picture by Saw Siow Feng

She is still adamant on proving she is not just another cutie doing the football thing just to get ratings.

Reem comes across as a liberal-thinking young woman of the new millennium with strong views about religion, current affairs as well as the sad state of Malaysian football.

The former broadcast reporter hopes for better things for Malaysia and maybe, just maybe, a chance we will be playing in the World Cup.

In her own words:

• If I don’t wear a tudung, does that make me any less Muslim? No, I don’t think so because generally what is being a Muslim all about? It’s your faith in God, right? As long as your faith is there, people shouldn’t be judging you based on that. I’m not any less religious because I don’t wear one.
• How you physically present yourself in this world does not reflect your faith in God.
• I wanted to be like Christiane Amanpour, I wanted to do hard-hitting journalism and then I realised investigative journalism in Malaysia is not that big.
• I don’t think there should be a stereotype that only guys like football. At the end of the day, the ball is round. Not biased. No sides like a triangle or anything. Whoever kicks the ball, it’s not like the ball can tell it’s a girl or a boy.
• We need to set a goal, like when we want to go to the World Cup. Right now we’re just shooting (blanks)... we win one (international) game and oh, everyone gets land or rewards or whatever… there’s something wrong there.
• Grassroots (football) is very important.
• I think all this racial discrimination should not be there. Like Australia, even if you are only a PR you are entitled to a lot of the same rights that the locals have. I believe everyone deserves equal treatment.
• At the end of the day if you equalise everything, you’ll see that Malays can compete.
• Now with everyone having equal rights, they (Malays) should be able to keep up. No more Malays in the sawah padi (stereotype).
• Yes, of course Malays can be successful. Definitely.