As Russia puts the finishing touches to the carefully manicured fields that will host the World Cup from next week, people around the globe are playing soccer on a surprising variety of makeshift pitches. Off the coast of an island in southern Thailand, they play on a floating platform; in the mountains of northern Italy, they kick about in the snow – images captured by Reuters photographers around the world. Here: Local residents play soccer on the top floor of a parking garage in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 4, 2018. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

People play "Palin", a traditional ritual and ancestral Mapuche game played with curved sticks called "Chuecas" and a wooden ball, during a meet on Dia de la Raza (Day of the Races), also known as Columbus Day in Vina del Mar, Chile October 11, 2015. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

Local actor Colin Retallick plays the role of St. Piran during the annual processional play to celebrate St. Piran, patron saint of tinners and regarded by many as Cornwall's premier saint, on March 4, 2012 in Perranporth, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

An actor holds a fake baby while waiting for the Wintershall Nativity play dress rehearsal to begin at Wintersall Estate on December 12, 2021 in Guildford, England. The Nativity play, which tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, has been performed annually since 1990 over the Christmas period by the Wintershall players. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

Marshalls try to get their hands on a streaker as golfers Michael Campbell of New Zealand and Paul McGinley of Ireland play the World Match Play final at Wentworth golf club some 20 miles west of London, 18 September 2005. Campbell won the title at the 17th hole. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP Photo)

School girls stand next to a ballot box at a polling station during the municipal elections in Havana April 19, 2015. Cuba held its first local elections since a historic thaw in relations with the United States with an unusual wrinkle in the single-party system: two of the 27,000 candidates openly oppose the government. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Soviet Army soldiers sit on their tanks in front of the Czechoslovak Radio station building in central Prague during the first day of Soviet-led invasion to then Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. (Photo by Libor Hajsky/Reuters)

Brazen seagulls, pigeons and starlings bask in the afternoon sun undeterred by a plastic Owl bird scarer on the roof of Liverpool Coastguard Station at Crosby on January 13, 2012 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)