ABSTRACT
Despite its reputation as ‘the beautiful game’, there are many instances of soccer-playing that few people would regard as aesthetically pleasing. For example, anyone who has watched young children play the game is familiar with the sight of kids clustered around the ball, kicking furiously in the hopes that they might emerge from the pack and make a break for goal. In a similar vein, many soccer purists regard heavily defensive football as ugly when contrasted with a playing style that is more open and oriented toward creativity in attack.
Without directly challenging these kinds of judgments, my contention is that even if the soccer being played on the field is decidedly unattractive, there are a number of other things occurring in the context of a football match that can nevertheless be regarded as beautiful: exerting maximum effort, being a good teammate, demonstrating sportsmanship, and the like. If this analysis is correct, we would seem to have a more nuanced way of appreciating the aesthetic dimensions of soccer than a simple division between ‘ugly soccer’ and ‘beautiful soccer’ would allow.
