For many, football is more than a sport \u2013 it\u2019s a surge of hope, tension and heartbreak. In this striking image, UK photographer Mike Taylor captures all of it in a single moment. The photograph, titled The Beautiful Game, has just won the Street Photography category at the CEWE Photo Awards.<\/p>\n
However, it was actually taken years earlier, during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, in an unknown pub somewhere in the UK during the dramatic 4 \u2013 3 match between France and Argentina.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The image centers on a man poised on the brink of either euphoric celebration or crushing disappointment \u2014 it\u2019s impossible to say which. He\u2019s surrounded by others, many wearing tense, anxious expressions that hint at the unfolding drama. Whether these are fans of either team or just punters, they all contribute to the charged atmosphere captured in the frame.<\/p>\n Article continues below <\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n ‘The Beautiful Game’ \u2013 Street Photography Category Winner <\/p>\n Speaking to CEWE, Taylor said: \u201cBefore this photograph was taken, I\u2019d been struggling for a while to find my voice, so I made some big changes. \u2018The Beautiful Game\u2019 was the first image I captured that truly came from those changes, so it\u2019s an image that holds a special place in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly eight years later, the image has finally received widespread recognition. Taylor shot it using a Leica<\/a> Q (Typ 116) with flash, using its fixed 28mm wide-angle focal length and, despite a relatively low 1\/60-second shutter speed, the scene is captured crisply, freezing what feels like sudden movement.<\/p>\n Mike has taken a whole series of images of people watching football in pubs. <\/a>“In terms of actually welcoming a photographer in, landlords have been split 50\/50 along the lines of either ‘not in a million years mate’ or ‘come in, sit down and have a pint’,” Mike explains.<\/p>\n “In the pubs that have let me in, there\u2019s never been any problem getting a seat, even during a major tournament. Probably because the one I really want is right under the screen with no view of the action. It’s the one seat in the house that’s free, even on final night. The pub seat version of the losers’ ribbons at the FA Cup final.”<\/p>\n Established in 2018, the CEWE Photo Awards is the largest photography competition of its kind, with the latest edition attracting over 650,000 entries from more than 150 countries. For winning the Street Photography category, Taylor received a voucher worth \u20ac5,000 ($5,830), along with an additional \u20ac2,500 ($2,900) to spend on CEWE\u2019s range of photofinishing products.<\/p>\n The overall winner of the CEWE Photo Award 2025 was Hasan Baglar, who captured an image of two dancing praying mantises<\/a> in Cyprus. He snagged the grand prize of a \u20ac10,000 ($11,500) trip, \u20ac5,000 ($5,700) in equipment and \u20ac2,500 ($2,800) in CEWE photo products. You can see all of the category winners from the CEWE Awards 2025 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The best Leica Q deals today<\/p>\n You might also like\u2026<\/p>\n Discover our expert take on the best camera for street photography<\/a> along with the best street photography lenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many, football is more than a sport \u2013 it\u2019s a surge of hope, tension and heartbreak. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-552867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}