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)

Gong Yan of Team China flies out of the gate at the Para Alpine Skiing Men's Super Combined Super-G Standing at Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre during day three of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics on March 07, 2022 in Yanqing, China. (Photo by Joel Marklund for OIS/PA Wire)

A five-month-old cheetah seated in the back of a Land Cruiser growls at an outstretched hand after being taken from traffickers in Ethiopia and driven to Harirad, Somaliland, in 2020. This photo is part of the work of more than 100 artists in Why We Photograph Animals, a new collection of wildlife photography that aims to help understand why people have photographed animals at different points in history and what it means in the present. (Photo by Nichole Sobecki/Thames & Hudson)

The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is seen in the sky over Muonio in Lapland, Finland on January 18, 2021. (Photo by Alexander Kuznetsov/Reuters)

Reuters photographers Carlos Barria and Bobby Yip photographed protestors and details of life on the barricades, asking demonstrators what their role was in the movement, and what they wanted to happen. Here: Crystal, 15, a part-time boutique sales assistant, poses on Nathan Road in Mongkok shopping district in Hong Kong October 7, 2014. Holding a walkie talkie for fast communication with other supporters, Crystal said, “I am not demanding Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to quit, but (want) to protect protesters from being threatened badly by opponents and the police”. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

Museum assistant and former Soviet soldier, Sheikh Abdullah looks at a display in the Manzar-e Jahad, or Jihad Museum, which depicts the Soviet invasion of 1979 and the Afghan resistance, in Herat, on February 15, 2014. Sheikh Abdullah, who was a Soviet intelligence officer by the name of Khakimov Bakhrodin, was captured after being injured in battle with the Mujahideen. Abdullah stayed with his captors, converted to Islam and was renamed Abdullah. He never returned to his former homeland and now works at the Jihad Museum. (Photo by Aref Karimi/AFP Photo via The Atlantic)

Malena, 7, looks at Belgian clown Lili Bellule at the pediatric department of the Hopital Erasme at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), in Brussels January 27, 2015. The hospital offers performances by musicians and clowns as a form of therapy to help children cope with dealing with the stress and fear caused by hospitalization. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

London Mayor Boris Johnson takes part in a tug of war with members of the armed services to launch the London Poppy Day, outside City Hall, in London, October 27, 2015. London Poppy Day is a street collection event to raise money for serving and retired members of the armed services and their families. (Photo by Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)