Across Mexico, a co-host of the 2026 World Cup, football pitches are laid out wherever communities can find space.
On town edges, highway underpasses, and even in a volcano crater, cleared spaces allow people young and old to share in the dream of the beautiful game.
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In an impoverished Monterrey neighborhood, 14-year-old Humberto Guadalupe—nicknamed “Messi”—spends weekends on the community’s only football field, surrounded by abandoned cars and dirt roads.
Inspired by the legendary Argentinian player, he dreams of turning professional, encouraged by his grandmother.
“One way or another, it’s going to happen,” says Humberto. “Even when we lose a match, we keep our heads up.”
To the south, 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 pitch inside the crater of the extinct Teoca volcano.
Mist moves between pine trees and fruit orchards framing the field, nearly 700 meters above the capital.
Built by the community over 60 years ago, it is used by amateur local teams on Sundays.
In nearby Xochimilco, players ride traditional trajinera boats along canals, crossing chinampas—ancient agricultural plots that sustained the Aztec capital.
They head to some of Mexico City’s last natural grass pitches, located inside a UNESCO World Heritage site.
While these pitches are an important social hub, scientists say their creation can damage the area’s ecology and the habitat of the endangered axolotl salamander.
