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 when he went to see Manchester City play at Maine Road 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.[1]
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The exact origins of the term are disputed. Valdir Pereira, a Brazilian footballer, is thought to have coined the phrase, but the presenter Stuart Hall claims to have originated it in 1958.[2]
Earlier writers used the term in 1848 to describe the game of baaga'adowe, a forerunner of lacrosse as played by Ojibwe at Vauxhall Gardens in London,[3] and to tennis in 1890.[4]
In 1977 the famous footballer Pelé 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.
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 uses the Portuguese phrase "Joga Bonito" as one of the slogans for its association football products.