The Winners: CLUBELEVEN 2023 Photo Contest
After a staggering 571 submissions, two rounds of judge selections, and 1750 votes cast in the open community vote, we are happy to finally unveil the winners of the 2023 North American Soccer Photo Contest. Once again, we would like to thank everyone for participating and sharing their excellent work from 2023. It was an incredible year for submissions, reflected in both the tight margins of the community vote and the judge selections.
With that in mind, we would like to congratulate all of this year’s winners for their exceptional work, and their remarkable ability to capture the beauty of our sport in North America.
These are your 2023 winners:
Stephen Nadler | Growing the game category winner (29% of the vote)
Stephen’s photo is the winner of our Growing the Game Category [presented by Golaço Kits] after earning 29% of the community vote across five category finalists. The prompt asked photographers to show their “creative representation of growing the beautiful game in North America.”
Caption: “A boy controls a soccer ball during a Fundación Fútbol Más activity in Vista Hermosa, Morelos, Mexico.”
Craig Mitchelldyer | MATCH ACTION CATEGORY Winner (34% of vote)
Craig’s photo is the winner of our Match Action Category [presented by Worldie] after earning 34% of the community vote across five category finalists. The prompt asked photographers to show “The game. Goals, reactions, saves, celebrations — anything on the field during matchday.”
Caption: “Diego Valeri is lifted into the air by Timbers players after being inducted into the team's Ring of Honor on July 15, 2023.”
Spenser Powell | OVERALL Community Winner (27 % of vote), Soccer fandom category winner (35% of vote)
Aside from being the Overall Community Winner, Spenser’s photo also won our Soccer Fandom Category [presented by The 1st Half]. He earned 27% of the vote across 15 finalists in the Overall Community Prize Category, and 35% of the vote across five category finalists in the Soccer Fandom Category. The prompt asked photographers to show “The people. Photographs capturing the essence of soccer fandom in North America.”
Caption: “The Green Mountain Bhoys supporters group celebrates the last game of the Vermont Green FC Season.”
Andrea Vílchez | GRAND PRIZE WINNER
After a unanimous vote from this year’s group of judges, Andrea’s photo is the winner of the 2023 Grand Prize. Her photo was selected from the 15 overall finalists and crowned for its creativity, quality, originality, responsiveness to the prompt, and overall impact.
Caption: “Football legend Marta shares an emotional moment with a young Brazilian mascot before walking out on the pitch.”
Judge Comments on Winning Photo
Nikita: In my judging process, I had an Excel sheet to keep track of all my thoughts and scores. I did several runs looking at composition, colors, how it addressed the prompt, creativity, etc. Finally, I was able to narrow it down to a top 10, but this is one of the ones I flagged immediately from the beginning. I remember this photo going out on the NWSL accounts and doing the rounds on social media. I just remember how powerful and impactful this photo was. With Marta about to play her last season, I think this photo shows why she’s so important to our game. If you were to pick a photo that encapsulates ‘Growing the Game,’ this was the photo. In the end, it was a tough pick between the finalists, but I had to go with this one for my overall selection.
Drew: It’s such a simple photograph, but it captures so much. It’s a young girl right next to her idol, and that’s an emotion that many of us in soccer can relate to with our own idols. On top of that, it perfectly fits the idea of ‘Growing the Game,’ especially because of everything Marta has done. Seeing this photo kind of brought a tear to my eye because of how powerful it was.
Daniel: For me, this was also one of the first few that I instantly marked off. I did many, many passes trying to narrow all the submissions down, but this was one of the ones that I instantly knew was going to be on my finalist list. Everything about this Marta photo is just so impactful that it had to be my pick.
Messiah: I just think the piece speaks for itself. It says volumes about the future of the game, having a young girl being able to be escorted by the great Marta. It’s powerful — down from the emotion present in that moment to showing the greater passion the game brings. The joy is everything!
Matthew: It’s a very impactful photo – the girl is just bawling her eyes out. The look on her face is exactly what growing the game is all about. She’s going to remember that moment, and she will have this photo in her mind for the rest of her life. I gave it to this one very, very narrowly. The emotion, how it addresses its specific category, and the position of women’s football around the world this past year, made me select it from the ones that made it to the final round.
Before closing out this 2023 North American Soccer Photo Contest, if you submitted an entry at all, please keep an eye on your inbox. We will be reaching out to all participants for a special project to highlight even more photos from the contest.
In addition, we’ve just opened our feedback form to grow and improve this contest for next year. We’d love to hear your thoughts on new and existing categories, how to refine the submission/voting process, and anything else you think we should consider. We’d like this contest to continue to be a way for the soccer photography community to connect and proudly share their work, so please let us know all your thoughts right HERE.
Lastly, we’d like to give one final thank you to our incredible panel of judges, as well as to our friends at Golaço Kits, The 1st Half, and Worldie for helping us put it all together. See you all next year, and wishing you a fun 2024 season.
