The phrase "The Beautiful Game" is a synonym for Association Football. The origin or individual who coined the phrase is unknown and it is difficult to verify. Football commentator Stuart Hall is the only individual to have claimed to have created "The Beautiful Game". In his youth, Hall admired Peter Doherty

Peter Doherty (footballer)

Peter Dermot Doherty was a Northern Ireland international footballer and manager who played for Manchester City.An inside left, he was one of the top players of his time, winning a league title with Manchester City, an F.A. Cup final with Derby County in which he scored, and gained 16 caps for...

 when he went to see Manchester City play at Maine Road

Maine Road

Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England that was home to Manchester City F.C. from its construction in 1923 until 2003...

 and used the term "The Beautiful Game" to describe Doherty's style when playing. Consequently, he used the term "The Beautiful Game" in his commentary career later on in life which popularised the phrase.

Etymology

The exact origins of the term are disputed. Valdir Pereira

Valdir Pereira

Waldyr Pereira , nicknamed Didi , was a Brazilian footballer who played midfielder. He played in three World Cups: 1954, 1958, and 1962, winning the latter two. He is considered to be one of the greatest midfielders in the sport renowned for his range of passing, stamina and flawless technique...

, a Brazilian footballer, is thought to have coined the phrase, but the presenter Stuart Hall claims to have originated it in 1958.

Usage

In 1977 the famous footballer Pelé

Pelé

However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...

 named his autobiography My Life and the Beautiful Game. The book's dedication reads "I dedicate this book to all those who make the game beautiful". The phrase has now entered the language as a colourful description for football and as such was used as part of the title for the 13-part series charting the history of the game: History of Football: The Beautiful Game.

Terms Used

The term echoes J.C. Thring's description of the rules he helped develop for football in the middle of the 19th century, as The Simplest Game, which led to the development of the rules of association football. Nike

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

 uses the Portuguese phrase "Joga Bonito" as one of the slogans for its association football products.

See also

• The Beautiful Game (1999 film), known in the United States as The Match
• The Beautiful Game (musical)
  The Beautiful Game (musical)
  The Beautiful Game is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton about a group of teenagers growing up amid religious intolerance in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1969....
  
  
• The Beautiful Game (album)
  The Beautiful Game (album)
  The Beautiful Game was the tenth full-length album by Acoustic Alchemy, and marked a turning point in the career of guitarist Greg Carmichael....
  
  
• Beautiful Game Studios
  Beautiful Game Studios
  Beautiful Game Studios is a computer game development studio based in London, England. The studio is an internal development team within Square Enix and was set up in late 2003 by Eidos Interactive to develop the Championship Manager series...