On This Day – 26th October
Paul the Octopus shot to fame in 2010 for his ‘predictions’ during the 2010 World Cup and it was on this day in that year that he passed away.
The eight-legged mollusc shot to fame during the 2008 European Championships when staff at the Sea Life Centre where he lived in Oberhausen in Germany wanted to try something different for predicting the score of a Germany match. Paul was presented with two boxes; one with an oyster in and the other with a mussel. One box had the German flag on it and the other had the flag of Germany’s opponents on. Whichever one he ate from first would be decreed his ‘prediction’.
Paul must have been very patriotic as he chose Germany every time, with four out of six predictions correct. He correctly guessed that Germany would beat Poland and Austria in the group stages but was wrong when he chose Croatia.
He plumped for his home nation in the quarter finals and semi finals against Portugal and Turkey but was proved to be wrong when Germany lost to Spain in the Final.
Fast forward two years later to the World Cup in South Africa and Paul had obviously done his homework as he incredibly predicted ten correct wins in a row! Believe it or not, he now had an agent as well as the Sea Life Centre staff to look after his well-being!
He even had the temerity of predicting (correctly!) that Germany would lose two games, a 1-0 defeat to Serbia in the group stages and to Spain in the semi final.
News of Paul had spread across the globe and in the final between Holland and Spain, Paul plumped for a Spanish win. When man of the match Andres Iniesta popped up to score the winner with four minutes left of Extra Time, it gave Paul a 100% record in the competition!
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