page_title: The Beautiful Game
section_title: Usage
hierarchical_section_title: The Beautiful Game / Usage
caption_attribution_description: English: Brazilian footballer Pelé before a match between Santos FC and Boca Juniors in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
context_page_description: The Beautiful Game is a nickname for association football, popular within media and advertising. It was popularised by the Brazilian professional footballer Pelé. Although the exact origin of the phrase is disputed, football commentator Stuart Hall used it as far back as 1958. 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.
context_section_description: Brazilian footballer Pelé is credited with making the phrase synonymous with football. In 1977, he named his autobiography My Life and the Beautiful Game. The book's dedication reads "I dedicate this book to all the people who have made this great game the Beautiful Game." The phrase has entered the language as a description for football.
  The nickname serves as the name of the 1996 album The Beautiful Game. Featuring football anthems such as “Three Lions”, the music writer John Harris states that the album captures how the build-up to UEFA Euro 1996 "caught the imagination of the UK's musicians.”
  It is referenced in the title of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 2000 musical The Beautiful Game. It is used as a title for the 13-part 2002 series charting the history of the game: History of Football: The Beautiful Game, narrated by the actor Terence Stamp.
  The song “Wavin' Flag” – rapper K'naan‘s Coca-Cola promotional anthem for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – contained the lyric “let’s rejoice in the Beautiful Game.”
  In January 2014, New Model Army released a song called The Beautiful Game in support of the project "Spirit of Football". A football podcast was released with the title "The Beautiful Game".
caption: Pelé
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