My name is Mehdi Lhioui. I started photographing football almost by accident, standing on the sideline of a local pitch with a borrowed camera, and I never really left that spot.
What keeps me there is the same thing every match: one moment that won't happen again. A player's face right after a mistake. The quiet before a penalty. A locker room the second the final whistle goes. None of that gets a second take, so I try to be in position before it happens, not after.
Most of my work happens on amateur and semi-professional pitches — the games that don't get broadcast but matter just as much to the people playing them. I shoot the whole day: warm-up, the match itself, the walk back to the changing rooms, the small rituals players don't even notice they have.
Available for match coverage, club reportage, and portraits, and open to longer collaborations with clubs or players who want their season documented properly.