Paul the Octopus dies

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Paul the Octopus. (Photo:Tilla)

The soccer world is in mourning today. Paul the Octopus has passed away at his aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen. He apparently died of natural causes. Paul predicted the outcome of all of Germany’s matches in this year’s World Cup and Spain’s win in the final.Before every match, he’d be shown two clear plastic boxes. Inside each was a mussel and a country’s flag. Paul picked the right one every time. BBC’s Matt Cole has more. Download MP3

• Paul the Octopus, unlikely football pundit, is dead

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LISA MULLINS: The soccer world is in mourning today. Paul the Octopus has passed away at his aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen. Paul predicted the outcome of all of Germany’s matches in this year’s World Cup, and Spain’s win in the final. Here’s how the marvelous mollusc worked. Before the match, he’d be shown two clear plastic boxes. Inside each plastic box was a mussel and a country’s flag. Paul picked the right one every time. The BBC’s Matt Cole has been following the story of Paul the Octopus. Apparently before he passed Paul made one final prediction. What was it?

MATT COLE:  That’s right, indeed he did. One last leg, or should I say legsacy, for everyone, his final prediction. Of course he became quite a celebrity during the World Cup and as a result of that the England 2018 World Cup bid team, that’s the team in England bidding to bring the World Cup into 2018 to England, they asked him to become an official ambassador alongside big stars of football and soccer like David Beckham. And as part of being an official ambassador he made one last prediction. Would the World Cup go to England or to the rival bidder’s Russia or the joint bid between Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, Belgium? But no, perhaps because he was a patriot, because whilst living in Germany he was originally hatched in an aquarium on the south coast of England in Weymouth. He was therefore English and though he predicted England will host that tournament, so fingers crossed all Englishmen, tentacles crossed for all his fellow octopuses that he will indeed have been right in that final, final tragic prediction.

MULLINS:  That’s right. And sadly he won’t be around to figure out if he was right or not. But this way, he can continue on in octopus heaven with the same kind of praise that he lived in this little aquarium on.

COLE: Indeed. He got during the course of the tournament in South Africa, he predicted eight games in a row correctly. The odds of doing it are 1 in 256, so I think we can all clearly see there’s no luck involved there. He clearly was an octopus with a psychic gift. Certainly he picked up a fan base for his achievements right around the world during the course of the tournament. For example, Spain offered to send armed guards to look after him after he predicted that Germany would be knocked out by the Spanish team. So clearly, not always popular.

MULLINS: By the way, since he obviously did make some enemies, as you say, is there any sign of foul play in his death?

COLE: Well, it seems at the moment that this was a case of purely natural causes. An octopus of his species tends to live no more than about three years, so we understand he originally hatched from an egg on the south coast of England in early 2008 before going to Germany to find fame and fortune, so we believe that he really had just come to the end of his natural lifespan. So, he hadn’t formally retired from predictions after the World Cup, just that the England World Cup bid, his last prediction we understand, so while his keepers did look in on him last night and he was fine, they weren’t so surprised when they found him dead. He is now, as they say, six feet under and well, two feet still above. It’s a sad day. I don’t really know if I can say anymore really.

MULLINS: Pull yourself together. The BBC’s Matt Cole has been following the story of the death of Paul the Octopus. Matt, thank you.

COLE: You’re welcome.

MULLINS: We remember Paul the Octopus fondly online. You can see a video of him picking Spain over Germany at TheWorld.org.

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