articles/Sports/photographingthespecialones-page2

Photographing the Special Ones - part 2 of 1 2

by Domenic Aquilina Published 01/12/2011

"To be honest I had butterflies flying around in my stomach during the morning of the match but then once the kick off went off it was all plain sailing. To this date I do think this was the most memorable UEFA Champions League match I have covered. It was excitement all the way 'till the final penalty kick which decided the outcome" (the best team won, of course! Ed.)

Domenic still relishes this first big moment. In fact further recognition arrived soon after his coverage of this final. He was awarded a front cover image of the Liverpool FC manager, Rafael Benitez in the official UEFA Technician magazine of July 2005. Domenic's photo was taken during Liverpool FC's pre-final training session in Istanbul the day before the final.

Three months later, Aquilina was again covering another big UEFA club final match - the UEFA Super Cup Final in Monaco, between Liverpool and Russian UEFA Cup winners, CSKA Moscow. Yet again the Reds came out on top after extra-time drama. A month later Aquilina's photo of stand-in Liverpool captain, Jamie Carragher lifting the UEFA Super Cup adorned the front cover of UEFA's official flagship publication Uefadirect.

Two years after his appointment the UEFA photographers' pool was abolished, but Domenic still held his 'freelance' status with Europe's governing football body.

A year later Domenic received another appointment from UEFA. This time he was appointed as UEFA Media Technologies SA Officer for Malta, meaning that he was to become the official football contributor from Malta to www.uefa.com - the official site to Europe's governing football body, which was revamped at that time - this is a position which he still holds and which he conducts with immense satisfaction and pride. "I love football writing so this appointment gave me the opportunity to combine my football photography with my football writing and vice versa."

In July of 2009, another photo taken in Istanbul, Turkey at the 2005 UEFA Champions League final, depicting Liverpool FC captain Stephen Gerrard holding aloft the coveted trophy, was chosen by T.E.A.M. Marketing AG - UEFA's marketing partner for the UEFA Champions League - to represent Liverpool FC on a specially designed backdrop which was present in the VIP Champions Club area at Anfield in all the matches which Liverpool FC played in last season's UEFA Champions League.

New Projects
Two years ago his connection with UEFA hit another important target as he was appointed as the official UEFA Venue Data Coordinator from Malta. The role of a VDC mainly consists in sending live data of any UEFA appointed match at club and international level on a software application developed by UEFA.

• Photographing the Special Ones page 1
  
• Photographing the Special Ones page 2
  

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