Paul- The Octopus

Paul: The Octopus

 If Cristiano Ronaldo’s right foot is worth 94million Euros, then there sure is many more celestial bucks pouring for each of its eight legs. Without kicking off, without tackling a single defender, without deluding a single goalkeeper and without dropping a sweat of fatigue it won the world in a cup of its own oracle. Yes! It’s PAUL THE OCTOPUS. When all other animals representing different countries failed to predict the matches of FIFA WORLD CUP2010 successfully, there was PAUL who showed them the way to oracle.

      UEFA EURO 2008, a career in an oracle began for PAUL where it failed to predict the winner of the Championship final. Cometh the hour and cometh an oracle, one by one Paul started to predict the matches where each of them came true. Paul fittingly predicted as many matches as its legs with 7 games of Germany and THE FINALE. Representing Germany he won millions of hearts all across the globe. He left gallons of German tears in Africa predicting their loss against Spain. Emotions were flaring in equal measures at Paul, on one side there was an argentine chef who wanted to cut it, roast it and make a brawny meal out of it while on the other were a  hundreds of Spaniards wanting to buy this mute insensate thing for millions. 

     This is how Paul made successful oracles. There were 2 plastic boxes of mussels or oysters with one box being fixed with the German flag and the other with its opponents’. Paul would be descended down to choose the box. The choice was made when it ate from the box it chose and in turn that country would be the predicted winner.

     He has not only caught the eyes of sportspersons but also famous movie stars, politicians and businessmen who were willing to buy him. It may just be co-incidents, just underperformance by some great teams, may have been an illusion or just a mere bad luck for the teams that lost. Some even consider Paul a party-pooper. Some don’t even believe that Paul ever existed and he ate the mussels as a hunger buster and not as a source of prediction.

    Let the myths and beliefs have their zone of existence but the statistics and analysis stand for Paul and salute his oracular mastery. He may have hung his boots now but will remain in most of our hearts. Spain might have won the FIFA WORLD CUP but PAUL THE OCTOPUS has won Spain and so he remains as the WINNER OF THE WINNER.