beautiful game

English

Etymology

Calque of Portuguese jogo bonito.

Noun

the beautiful game

1. (sometimes capitalized) association football; soccer.
   • 2014 November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, in The Scotsman‎^[1]:

     Amid all the fevered anticipation of this fixture, few would have expected to witness an aesthetically pleasing example of the beautiful game.

   • 1990 December 18, Fauzi Omar, “Cheers to Kedah But Not At All to Fifa”, in New Straits Times, Malaysia, page 32:

     After watching Saturday's final, don't you agree that soccer is still the beautiful game that Pelé called it?

2. (Canada) ice hockey.