Dutch photographer Hans van der Meer has a great book (with words by the great soccer wordsmith Simon Kuper) called European Fields. There's a website, too – with plenty of pictures.
The shots were taken during lower-league/Sunday league soccer matches, far from the stadiums and floodlights of the Premiership, Bundesliga or Champions League. Seeing these blokes running around in the cold and mud, on rinky-dink fields with nobody watching, you have to admire their efforts.
No wonder it's called the Beautiful Game.