On the recent Reuters Sports Newsletter PAN spotted this cracking image by their Senior Staff Photographer in the UK, Phil Noble, with a short write up to the moment he found his ‘winning moment’ image – Reuters has kindly allowed PAN to re-run the story for our readers. …and read what the photo desk told PAN about the moment the image landed across the wires.
Phil Noble on THAT shot: “It had been a long time coming, but finally all Liverpool needed to clinch their 20th league title was to not lose to Spurs at Anfield.
As a photographer you constantly think about what ‘that winning moment’ will look like. During the game, Salah had scored the goal which would clinch the title and during the celebrations had taken a phone from the crowd and made a selfie.
Photographers are assigned set positions for the match and are certainly not able to enter the field of play and for me this key moment was obscured in a sea of stewards and roaming TV camera operators, winning moment gone and I was gutted.
Following the final whistle the celebrations began in earnest and we were allowed to leave our spots and move to the edge of the pitch. There was so much going on and so many stories to consider with Trent’s impending departure, Slot’s first title, Virgil as captain and so on.
I saw Salah moving towards the fans and headed towards him at which point he was offered another phone to take a selfie. Picking up my camera with the wide angle lens, I quickly moved in front of him and started taking pictures, it was over almost as quickly as it began. Definitely a good moment to have captured.”
PAN reader, Mark Hartnell, Editor In Charge – Action Images (Thomson Reuters), sent PAN this note on the Phil’s image: “When the celebrations kicked off and the pictures started coming through from Phil, this one stood out straight away. Mo Salah, the player of the year, right there in the moment with the fans — it had everything. We gave it a quick crop and tidy-up, sent it out, and knew instantly it would be the image of the day. It was no surprise to see it get the pick-up it did.”