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)

Tourists walk amongst beach foam in the wake of cyclonic conditions at Currumbin Beach on December 15, 2020, after wild weather lashed Australia's Northern New South Wales and South East Queensland with heavy rain, strong winds and king tides. (Photo by Patrick Hamilton/AFP Photo)

Denver Broncos cheerleaders perform in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on December 31, 2023. (Photo by Isaiah J. Downing/USA TODAY Sports)

Botswana's Ross Branch competes during the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge stage two on March 7, 2022. (Photo by Edoardo Bauer/AFP Photo)

Lucas Moraes (BRA) and Armand Monleon (ESP) of team Toyota Gazoo Racing trains during the shakedown prior Rally Dakar 2025 in Bisha, Saudi Arabia on January 02, 2025. (Photo by Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull)

Dan Copeland, left, and Alex Morneau of Biddeford, Maine, former high school cheerleaders, perform back flips while enjoying the record breaking heat, Thursday, May 18, 2017, at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The temperature climbed well into the 90s in many locations throughout the state. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

Nadezhda Sergeeva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, looks at her time in the women's monobob heat 4 at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, February 14, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. (Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo)

A brightly burning magnesium-rich meteor known as a bolide was captured near Bude, Cornwall on January 24, 2020. (Photo by Chris Small/Apex News)