How the beautiful game came to be

The popular nickname of football -- the beautiful game -- proves the indelible mark of the game into the world of sport. 'O jogo bonito' in Portuguese, no other sporting event could unify and draw such a massive fan base in every country where it is represented. According to Alexander Sabadash, the word beautiful takes on another meaning if you look into the frenzy of football's loyal followers.

The origins of the nickname the beautiful game have, until now, been disputed, says Alexander Sabadash. Some sources point to the 1950s as its time of origin where it is attributed to football player Walder "Didi" Pereira, while presenter Stuart Hall claimed to have originated it in 1958 to describe his admiration for Peter Doherty's style of playing when Stuart went to see Manchester City play at Maine Road.

Some sources, however, point to much earlier dates, like with English author and football fanatic H.E. Bates who used the beautiful game remark in a 1952 newspaper article praising football with a title "Brains in the feet." But, as Alexander Sabadash notes, other sources cite 19^th-century writers as having used the term as early as 1848, for example, to describe a different game called baaga'adowe, a forerunner of lacrosse and tennis, in 1890.

But for Alexander Sabadash, it is the usage of Brazil's legendary football player Norman Vincent Pelé, which cemented the beautiful game in the hearts and minds of modern-day football fans, and which stood the test of time, making it synonymous to football aside from entering the lexicon to describe football. In his 1977 autobiography "My Life and the Beautiful Game," Pelé wrote, "I dedicate this book to all the people who have made this great game the Beautiful Game."