IN PICS | In Mexico, like in South Africa, soccer is played wherever space permits

Across World Cup co-host Mexico, soccer pitches are laid out wherever communities can find the space. On the edges of towns, on highway underpasses and even in a volcano crater, spaces are cleared that allow the young and the old to share in the dream of the beautiful game.

A drone picture of Los Pinos football pitch in the Cerro de la Campana, Monterrey, Mexico, March 24 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

A drone picture of Los Pinos football pitch in the Cerro de la Campana, in Monterrey, Mexico, March 29 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

'Pandilleros' team members are seen warming up through a broken car window ahead of the Cerro de la Campana llanero soccer championship semifinal against 'Bandoleros' at Los Pinos football pitch in Monterrey, Mexico, March 29 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Children from communities near Cerro de la Campana take part in a soccer match that begins with listening to the word of God, followed by snacks organised by evangelists and brothers Rene Cardona and Andres Cardona in Monterrey, Mexico, March 24 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

In an impoverished neighbourhood in Monterrey in northern Mexico, 14-year-old Humberto Guadalupe, called “Messi” by friends and family, spends his weekends on the community’s only soccer field, surrounded by abandoned cars and dirt roads.

Humberto Guadalupe, 14, nicknamed "Messi", who dreams of becoming a professional soccer player, plays football in the backyard of his house in Cerro de la Campana, Monterrey, Mexico, March 28 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Humberto Guadalupe, 14, nicknamed "Messi", who dreams of becoming a professional soccer player, poses for a portrait next to the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe at his house in Cerro de la Campana, Monterrey, Mexico, March 28 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Humberto Guadalupe, 14, nicknamed "Messi", who dreams of becoming a professional soccer player, poses for a portrait with his grandfather Guadalupe Mendonza Guerrero, 62, and his grandmother Maria del Carmen Gutierrez Rodriguez, 56, at their house at Cerro de la Campana, in Monterrey, Mexico, March 28 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Reuters Agency)

Just like the legendary Argentine player who inspired his nickname, he dreams of becoming a professional player one day, encouraged by his grandmother. “One way or another, it’s going to happen,” he says. “Even when we lose a match, we keep our heads up.”

People cheer for the 'Pandilleros' team during the Cerro de la Campana llanero soccer championship semifinal against 'Bandoleros' at Los Pinos football pitch in Monterrey, Mexico, March 29, 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Emmanuel Dela Rosa, 2, looks at his father during an amateur league match between Real America and Mexico in the protected Xochimilco area, in southern Mexico City, March 8, 2026. The Unesco World Heritage site, known for its canals and chinampas, or so-called floating gardens, remains a social hub where residents gather for weekend football matches. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Children from communities near Cerro de la Campana listen to the word of God, before taking part in a soccer match, in Monterrey, Mexico, March 24 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

To the south, in a rural district on the outskirts of Mexico City, families arrive by car, motorcycle, bicycle and on foot to watch matches at the “Field of the Gods”, a soccer pitch inside the crater of the extinct Teoca Volcano.

A drone view shows a sports field known as the Field of the Gods, inside the crater of the Teoca volcano, an inactive volcano at more than 2,700 metres above sea level where amateur tournaments are played every Sunday, in Mexico City, April 19 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Locals play at the match San Isidro vs Real Bombay for the amateur soccer league games, at the "Cancha de los Dioses" (Field of the Gods), a soccer field inside the crater of the dormant Teoca volcano in the mountains between Xochimilco and Milpa Alta, in Mexico City, May 24, 2026. The community flattened the crater more than 60 years ago to build the field, where local amateur teams play matches every Sunday. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Mist moves between pine trees and fruit orchards that frame the pitch in the former Teoca crater, nearly 700 metres (2,300 ft) above the sprawling capital. Built by the community more than 60 years ago, it is used by amateur local teams on Sundays.

A drone view shows a soccer field at the Sports Unit "Luis Donaldo Colosio" with the crater of the Xico volcano, an almost perfectly circular tuff ring known locally as the "navel of the world", on the outskirts of Mexico City, April 8 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

In nearby Xochimilco, soccer players ride in traditional “trajinera” wooden boats along canals and cross chinampas, the ancient agricultural plots or floating gardens that helped sustain the Aztec capital centuries ago.

A drone view shows trajineras and a sculpture of the critically endangered axolotl, a salamander native to central Mexico's lakes, as its use in public imagery ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 has divided residents who say more should be done to protect its habitat, in Xochimilco, Mexico City, May 31 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

People ride a trajinera towards football fields to take part in amateur league matches in the protected Xochimilco area, in southern Mexico City, March 1 2026. The Unesco World Heritage site, known for its canals and chinampas, or so-called floating gardens, remains a social hub where residents gather for weekend football matches. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Locals play football at a pitch next to a plantation in the Xochimilco ecological zone, composed of water channels and chinampas (floating gardens), a reminder of traditional pre-Hispanic land use, in Mexico City, May 24 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

They are heading to play on some of Mexico City’s last remaining natural grass pitches. Located inside a Unesco World Heritage Site, the pitches are an important social hub, but their creation can be damaging to the area’s ecology and habitat of the endangered axolotl salamander, scientists say.

A player from the 'Pandilleros' team ties his soccer boots ahead of the Cerro de la Campana llanero soccer championship semifinal against 'Bandoleros,' at Los Pinos football pitch in Monterrey, Mexico, March 29 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Though separated by landscape and distance, these matches share the same rhythm: communities building spaces around soccer in places shaped by hardship, geography and memory.

People watch the Cerro de la Campana llanero soccer championship semifinal 'Bandoleros' vs 'Pandilleros' at Los Pinos football pitch in Monterrey, Mexico, March 29 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

People gather to watch the Cerro de la Campana llanero soccer championship semifinal 'Pandilleros' vs 'Bandoleros' at Los Pinos football pitch in Monterrey, Mexico, March 29 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

A player from the Mexico team takes a penalty kick during the match Brazil vs Mexico, during the amateur football league, at Los Pinos football pitch in Monterrey, Mexico, March 29 2026. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha (Raquel Cunha)

Reuters photographer Raquel Cunha spent some three months taking photos of amateur soccer matches across Mexico City and beyond; she mostly worked on Sundays, when players are out in force. She selected most of her subjects by closely examining the city on map apps and then choosing a shortlist of 15 to photograph with a drone. Of these, she chose two in the city plus one in the industrial north to also photograph on the ground, with contrasting environments: gritty Monterrey; a green, mountainous suburb; and a historic neighbourhood of canals.