Photos

This example shows how to plot photos in your charts.

from urllib.request import urlopen

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from PIL import Image

from mplsoccer import Pitch, add_image

plt.style.use('dark_background')

Load an image of Messi

# load the image
IMAGE_URL = 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Messi_vs_Nigeria_2018.jpg'
image = Image.open(urlopen(IMAGE_URL))

Inset image

You can use ax_image to create an inset_axes on a pitch and then plot an image.

pitch = Pitch(line_zorder=2)
fig, ax = pitch.draw(figsize=(16, 9), tight_layout=False)
ax_image = pitch.inset_image(40, 60, image, height=20, ax=ax)

Photo from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi#/media/File:Messi_vs_Nigeria_2018.jpg; License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; Creator: Кирилл Венедиктов

Plotting an image over a pitch

You can also use add_image, which uses figure coordinates instead of the pitch coordinates for placing the axes.

# draw the pitch
pitch = Pitch(line_zorder=2)
fig, ax = pitch.draw(figsize=(16, 9), tight_layout=False)

# add an image
ax_image = add_image(image, fig, left=0.55, bottom=0.2, width=0.2,
                     alpha=0.9, interpolation='hanning')

More control over the images and axis

For more control over where the images are placed, you can create a blank figure with plt.figure() and then use Figure.add_axes() to add seperate axes for each of the plot elements.

# setup a blank figure
figsize = (16, 9)
fig_aspect = figsize[0] / figsize[1]
fig = plt.figure(figsize=figsize)

# setup a Pitch object
pitch = Pitch(pad_bottom=0.5, pad_top=0.5, pad_left=0.5, pad_right=0.5, line_zorder=2)

# we are going to add an axis for the pitch
# the width will be 65% (0.65) of the total figure
# we then calculate the pitch display height and draw the pitch on the new axis
PITCH_DISPLAY_WIDTH = 0.65
pitch_display_height = PITCH_DISPLAY_WIDTH / pitch.ax_aspect * fig_aspect
ax1 = fig.add_axes((0.05,  # 5% in from the left of the image
                    0.05,  # 5% in from the bottom of the image
                    PITCH_DISPLAY_WIDTH, pitch_display_height))
pitch.draw(ax=ax1, tight_layout=False)

# we are also going to add the Messi image to the top of the figure as a new axis
# but this time the width will be 8% of the figure
ax2 = add_image(image, fig, left=0.054, bottom=0.84, width=0.08, interpolation='hanning')

# and the Messi image to the bottom right of the figure on a new axis
# but this time the width will be 20% of the figure
ax3 = add_image(image, fig, left=0.75, bottom=0.054, width=0.2, interpolation='hanning')

# add a title
title = fig.suptitle("Messi's greatest hits", x=0.42, y=0.9, va='center', ha='center', fontsize=60)

Photo from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi#/media/File:Messi_vs_Nigeria_2018.jpg; License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/; Creator: Кирилл Венедиктов

plt.show()  # If you are using a Jupyter notebook you do not need this line