Become A Psychic Octopus And Everyone Wants A Piece Of You

Other than La Furia Roja, no one had a more prosperous World Cup than Paul the octopus. There are a lot of misconceptions about Paul. For one, he’s not actually psychic, as many like to claim, just the unknowing beneficiary of lots of dumb luck.

That’s not all. Apparently his name is not even Paul. Before he clinched a perfect eight-for-eight record in predicting World Cup matches, Italian media had already stepped forward to claim that, contrary to what is written in his official biography, Paul was caught in Italian waters, meaning his name is actually Paolo. Also you really should hear his version of “Via Con Me”.

Verena Bartsch, the octopus’ trainer on Sunday told the Sunday edition of Germany’s Bild tabloid newspaper that she caught him in April in the sea off the Italian island of Elba, near Tuscany. He was four weeks old at the time.

Bartsch’s version conflicts with Paul’s official biography, according to which the octopus is two years old and came from Weymouth, England, before moving to an aquarium in western Germany.

The Italians are telling themselves that because an unusually accurate predicting octopus was caught in their waters, that the country played a larger role in this year’s World Cup than some would think of a nation whose team didn’t manage to escape the group round. You can forgive the Italians a little delusion, having seen the Azzurri go from champs to laughingstock. Of course, they could have been spared some embarrassment if only their resident octopus had bothered to let them know.