You might think a man who captured images at 13 World Cups and worked as FIFA's official photographer for two decades must be passionate about football.

But Peter Robinson, who has photographed icons such as Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, admits he has never been a huge fan of the sport itself.

Robinson, 82, has travelled to competitions in close to 100 countries in a career he describes as "bonkers".

His work is now being celebrated in an exhibition that highlights its focus on the stories of football off the field, photos which curator Hugo Worthy said "tell you a huge amount about football but about life more broadly".

Robinson, who now lives in Rutland, said he believed it was his lack of "fan energy" about football that allowed him to capture unique pictures of the sport.

"It's helped me produce different images than the usual sports football photographer," Robinson explained to the BBC.

"Because their remit, their shopping lists are the things that are important in the game - goals and incidents.

"I'm destined to shoot these pictures because other people are not.

"All of the pictures have got a question mark on it for me - why did this happen like this?"

Robinson's photography journey started in the 1960s when, while booking local bands to play in Leicester, he met a group called The Contacts, made up of photography students at the Leicester School of Art, now De Montfort University.

He said they had "a good vibe" and he wondered what it would be like to make a living taking photos.

Robinson, who lived in New Parks in Leicester at the time, decided to speak to the course leader even though he did not have a camera or any photographs to show.

He chose to study photography at the school in 1964 and instantly took to it.

"It took me a day to figure out this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life," Robinson said.

"You could shoot, and you've made the prints, and then you critique them in class.

"I felt like I was Jack the Lad. People were talking about what I had done in class and I just took to this perfectly."

While a student, Robinson admits the "last thing I wanted to do" was shoot football pictures.

However as he was "skint", he took a role delivering papers for local publication Football League Review before eventually becoming a photographer there.

Robinson went on to work for the Football Association (FA) and was then asked to photograph for FIFA at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, providing pictures for the official report.

He went on to become the football body's official photographer up to the 1994 World Cup and says one of his favourite photos showed Italian captain Franco Baresi receiving a runners-up medal after that tournament's final against Brazil in Los Angeles.

The day before, Robinson scouted out the spot and decided he would need to use a flash gun to improve the lighting for the photo and "fill in" the shadows which he said would have been "horrendous" during the day.

In the corner of the shot is the World Cup trophy just out of reach of Baresi - whose Italy side lost on penalties to Brazil.

Robinson said he remembered waiting and waiting for the right moment for the shot as Baresi walked up to accept his medal.

"As I write in the caption, it's a bit like a noose for execution," he said.

"He doesn't want the lousy medal, he just wants to fall into a hole in the ground.

"And I took one photograph, that's all I took."

Another classic shot taken in October 1970 features "two bobbies" - England legend Sir Bobby Charlton preparing to take a corner while a policeman keeps an eye on supporters.

"You can see the kids in the front row of that picture. They are looking at somebody almost like he [Charlton] is a deity," Robinson said.

"Michael Palin kindly did the intro for my book and talked about how it was some kind of renaissance photo."

Earlier this year, Robinson came out of retirement to take photos at the Argentina v Cape Verde game in Miami during the 2026 World Cup.

But back in 1986, when Maradona lifted the trophy, he was also there to shoot it.

"Unlike the picture of Baresi in LA, I did not set anything up because I tried to find out where the presentation would take place and nobody seemed to be organised," Robinson said.

"I did not know whether it was going to be presented by X or Y. So I couldn't decide.

"I think I turned into the VIPs and they seemed a bit confused about who was going to do what. I think I saw that and took the picture.

"I thought it was interesting they hadn't figured out beforehand what they were going to do as regards to the presentation.

"He [Maradona] looked very reticent.

"If you look at him, he is not doing a dance he is sort of thinking 'this is what it is all about, I am with the big boys now'.

"That's how I read the picture.

"Once he got down on the field he went back to his normal self after he got the cup.

"It just doesn't look like somebody who is going to get this accolade and that's why I like the picture, because of his body language."

His career has taken him to far-flung corners of the globe, including Madagascar.

While working for cigarette company Camel, he shot a photo of villagers playing football on a makeshift pitch during the 1987 Camel Trophy.

"Camel sponsored an off-road event that was Land Rovers and this was a thousand miles from the north of Madagascar to the south in all sorts of places," Robinson said.

"It was to photograph people driving through the jungle in Land Rovers and we flew into this village, it wasn't a straight line trip, it was jerky, they did 500 kilometres in one place and then flew by helicopter to another place.

"I had stopped in this town and I was wondering around like I do normally and came across these guys playing football.

"I was there five minutes, I saw that picture with the keeper standing there in the grass."

The exhibition at New Parks Library, on the same street as his childhood home, is showcasing 40 of his photographs.

Reflecting on his journey from Leicester to stadiums around the world, he said: "It means that it doesn't matter where you are from, you can do it, can't you?

"I come from here, it's ordinary. I like that, I like being ordinary."

Hugo Worthy said curating the exhibition had allowed him to showcase images that "tell stories that absolutely go beyond football".

"I find Peter's vision super exciting, super refreshing," he said.

"If you go through his work there is lots of action shots there, but it is not necessarily what excited me most about his work.

"He uses football as a way to talk about the human condition.

"It is a really powerful way of looking at the world through his lens of football.

"There is a really profound sense of seriousness around the way he takes pictures."

Robinson was honoured in 2025 with a lifetime achievement in sports award at the Lucie Awards, an international event celebrating "the most influential figures in contemporary photography".

Worthy said a picture of ashes being interred on the pitch at a non-league game stood out to him as one that "captures Peter's vision".

"It is about football as religion, football as this amazing focus for community, family and society," he said.

"It is this really beautiful, intimate photograph."

Robinson hopes one day his archive will be on display at De Montfort University to bring his life's story "full circle".

"I like images that have got a story and ordinary images about ordinary people," he said.

The exhibition at New Parks Library is due to run until March.