EBENEZER.COM: Digital manipulation of football photos

Digital manipulation of images is widely used in the field of sports, particularly football. With the advent of new media and digital technologies, people across the world use software and applications to create, modify or change images in order to suit their own needs.

In football, this concept is used to exaggerate facts relating to things that take place in the field. Being one of the most interesting sporting events, football has a diversity of fans across the world, segmented by virtue of the football teams or clubs they support. There are several famous cases where fans have manipulated images in order to communicate the original message with more emphasis.

Flying Van Persie

Actual Van Persie flying header

In the recently concluded 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Robin Van Persie, captain of the Netherlands team scored a wonder goal when he converted Wesley Sneijder’s long cross with a header past Spain goalkeeper. It was his opening goal of the tournament as the Manchester United striker helped his team thrush the defending champions 5-1.

Funny: Modified Van Persie header

Just some moments after the match, several manipulated images of the scene started circulation in social media, where the Dutch man appeared to have wings as he flies with the ball. The addition of wings was meant to exaggerate the manner in which the goal was scored, in an almost impossible way.

Funny: Van Persie in the sky

Other photos were showing Van Persie in the sky, in the middle of some angels. The fans were just trying to show how the goal scorer’s dive could only be compared with an angel.

Van Persie’s goal was listed among the top three goals of the tournament, together with James Rodriguez's volley for Colombia against Uruguay and Tim Cahill's stunning strike against the Netherlands for Australia.

Ramos penalty ball

In the 2011/2012 UEFA Champions League season, Spanish club Real Madrid met Germany side Bayern Munich in the semi finals on 25^th April, 2012. Until the end of the second leg, the aggregate score was 3-3 and so the match went into penalty shootout.

Ramos penalty miss

It is that moment when the phrase “Ramos penalty ball” originated and dominated the social media alongside some funny photos. Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid defender was among the five selected to take the penalties and due to bad luck, he lifted the ball wide above the goal post. Bayern eventually won 3-1 and proceeded to the final where they lost to England side Chelsea.

Funny: Ramos ball in space

The scene was captured and immediately manipulated into various funny images. One of the photos was showing how far the ball reached and according to the designer, the ball flew to space and was spotted among the planets, revolving around the sun.

Funny: Impact of Ramos ball return

The following day, a photo in the social media was showing the impact of the penalty ball when it returned. The ball landed on someone’s house, broke the window and dipped into a plate of food on a table, splashing the contents onto the face and clothes of the owner.

Funny: Impact of Ramos ball return

There was yet another funny one in the morning, which was accompanied with a headline, “Sergio Ramos penalty ball finally lands.” The ball landed violently onto a moving car in the streets and the car could not withstand the pressure. It broke down!

All these were trying to exaggerate on the strength of the penalty kick and the fact that the ball flew far above the goal post.

The biting Suarez

Luis Suarez is a Uruguayan striker who recently joined Barcelona from Liverpool. He has always been in the headlines for his habit of biting opponents in the field. This has earned him nick-names such as The Biting Suarez, Vampire, Cannibal, Dracula and many others.

Actual Suarez bite on Ivanovic

On 22^nd April 2013, Suarez bit Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic on his arm towards the end of a Premier League match that ended in a 2-2 draw. It was his second bite of his career after biting Ottman Bakkal of PSV when he was still playing for Ajax in 2010.

Modified Suarez bite on Ivanovic

After the 2013 incident, several photos began to circulate, with exaggerated effect where Ivanovic appeared to bleed profusely as a result of the bite.

Actual Suarez bite on Chiellini

Again in the 2014 World Cup, Suarez appeared to bite Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder in a match where Uruguay won 1-0. This was the peak of the matter.

Modified Suarez bite on Chiellini

The image of the scene was manipulated as to show three huge marks on Chiellini’s shoulder, suggesting that Suarez had deeply sunk his teeth, causing his opponent to bleed.