Al Jazeera Close Up

These In­di­an fans in Qatar are mad for Mes­si’s Ar­genti­na.

They cy­cled near­ly 4,500 miles from Paris to watch the World Cup in Doha.

A goal­keep­er de­fies ex­pec­ta­tions by start­ing her foot­ball ca­reer at 48 in Naples, the city of the leg­endary Maradona.

In Su­dan, where women’s foot­ball was banned for 30 years, a coach dreams of tak­ing her male team to the first league.

These street girls from Bangladesh are strik­ing on the pitch at Qatar’s oth­er World Cup: The Street Child World Cup.

In Iran, women can’t en­ter sta­di­ums as spec­ta­tors, but these Afghan sis­ters dream of a spot on the side­lines as coach­es.

A group of women from the Brazil­ian fave­las turn their lives around by train­ing in The Black Pearls Foot­ball acad­e­my.

An MSF ship heads out to res­cue asy­lum seek­ers from Libya who risk their lives by cross­ing the Mediter­ranean Sea.

A bat­tal­ion of vol­un­teer medics pro­vides first aid as­sis­tance on the front lines of Ukraine.

A team of young Niger­ian dancers brings hope to one of the poor­est and most dan­ger­ous dis­tricts of La­gos.