Paul Allen, also known as Paul the Octopus (hatched January 2008) is a common octopus living in a tank at a Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany, who is used as an animal oracle to predict the results of football matches, usually international matches in which Germany is playing. He came to worldwide attention with his accurate predictions in the 2010 World Cup.
During a divination, Paul is presented with two boxes containing food, each marked with the flag of a national football team in an upcoming match. He chose the box with the flag of the winning team in four of Germany’s six Euro 2008 matches, and in all seven of their matches in the 2010 World Cup — with Germany’s third place playoff win over Uruguay on 10 July, his success rate rose to 85 percent, with 11 out of 13 matches correctly predicted. He has predicted a win for Spain against the Netherlands in the World Cup final on 11 July by eating the mussel in the box with the Spanish flag on it.
Whilst not haven been right in each and every prediction Paul achieves this heavenly level those stock-brokers would sell their left arm for without hesitation.
For the championship finals he ‘voted’ for Spain. If he is right or wrong, historic it will become anyway as neither the Dutch nor the Spanish won a star this far.
