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)

Lush green rice terraces sprawl over 2,200 hectares of mountainside ready to be harvested. These stunning images, captured by photographer Saravut Whanset, show the incredible terraces throughout the course of the day, including at sunrise and sunset. Workers tend to the fields, with each terrace between 1 and 1.5 metres wide, while wooden huts stand on stilts on the mountainside. The beautiful panoramic pictures were taken in Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam, with the fields located at the foot of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, 1,000 metres above sea level. (Photo by Saravut Whanset/Solent News and Photo Agency)

A heifer, tied with a rope, turns during “Toro de Cuerda” in the white village of Villaluenga del Rosario, southern Spain September 3, 2016. Dazzling clusters of cube-shaped houses perched on top of Andalusia's olive tree-studded mountains, the “Pueblos Blancos”, or white villages, of southern Spain are named for the lime wash the buildings are painted with to keep the interiors cool. The labyrinths of narrow alleyways are a throwback to when this region was known as Al-Andalus and was part of a medieval Muslim territory. While this region is stunningly beautiful and a big draw to tourists visiting the south of Spain, it is also one of the poorest areas in the country and has one of the highest unemployment rates in the European Union. (Photo by Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters)

Serra da Aboboreira Megalithic Set (Meninas do Crasto) on September 24, 2023 in Baiao, Portugal. Since 1978 that Serra da Aboboreira (Aboboreira Mountains) has been the scene of a systematic study of its archeological values, among which are the monuments known as megalithic. These are funerary monuments designing the landscape. These dolmens were constructed with stones (lithos) of medium or large dimensions (mega), which were laid in a, more or less, vertical position. Over these, it was still placed a lid, also of stone. These containers were covered by an artificial mound of earth and stones (dolmen). (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

This photo taken on October 8, 2017 shows dancers posing in formation to celebrate the upcoming Party Congress, in Rongan in China' s southern Guangxi region. China will convene its 19 th Party Congress on October 18, state media said, a key meeting held every five years where President Xi Jinping is expected to receive a second term as the ruling Communist Party' s top leader. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Young women wearing facemasks and traditional costumes of Song dynasty and Tang dynasty are seated on a bench in a park next to the East Lake in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on May 17, 2020. The Guardian picture desk has chosen on December 17, 2020, the AFP photojournalist Hector Retamal as “Agency Photographer of the Year 2020” for his coverage of the novel coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

Chinese women dressed in traditional costumes and wearing masks visit a popular shopping street in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, Saturday, January 23, 2021. A year after it was locked down to contain the spread of coronavirus, the central Chinese city of Wuhan has largely returned to normal, even as China continues to battle outbreaks elsewhere in the country. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A child plays with a mock submachine gun at a model Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station to mark the National Security Education Day at Hong Kong Police College in Hong Kong, China on April 15, 2021. The “education day” was organized to promote the sweeping legislation China imposed last year, marked with school activities, games and shows, and a parade by police and other services. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)