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Ok, so even though my team dropped out of the World Cup (Don't cry for me Argentinaaaaaa...sob sob!) I'm still a huge football fan and i'll definately be watching the final game...but who do you think will win?


Eyes around the world were on Germany's octopus oracle Paul yesterday as he made his biggest prediction yet in the World Cup: Spain will beat the Netherlands in the final.

Paul's prescient picks in the World Cup - he has yet to predict a match wrong - have propelled him to international fame from obscurity in an aquarium in the western city of Oberhausen. TV stations in Germany, Great Britain, Taiwan and elsewhere broadcast live pictures, complete with breathless commentary, of his final decision.

Millions watched as the eight-legged oracle descended upon on a tank marked with a Spanish flag, sitting for only a few minutes before grabbing a mussel and devouring it, while completely ignoring the Dutch tank - indicating a Spanish victory in tomorrow's final match.

It was the first time the 21/2-year-old floppy octopus had been tasked to pick a game in which Germany wasn't involved, as the Oberhausen Sea Life aquarium bowed to demand. He correctly called Germany's wins over Argentina, England, Australia and Ghana and the country's loss to Spain and Serbia.




German victory today

He also predicted yesterday that Germany will win over Uruguay in today's match for third and fourth place.

Paul first developed his abilities during the 2008 European Championship in which he predicted five out of six games involving Germany correctly. But while he had only a community of local fans two years ago, his World Cup prognostications have brought him something like stardom. He has his own Facebook fan pages and a list of admirers that includes the Spanish leader.

His handlers say he is coping with fame well.

"Paul is such a professional oracle - he doesn't even care that hundreds of journalists are watching and commenting on every move he makes," said Stefan Porwoll, the Sea Life aquarium manager.

Spain's defeat of Germany in the semi-finals prompted some Germans to wonder about how he would taste grilled. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero fretted about the safety of 'El Pulpo Paul', as he's known in Spain, and offered Paul protection.

"I am concerned about the octopus," Zapatero said. "I'm thinking about sending in a team to protect the octopus because, obviously, it was very spectacular that he should get Spain's victory right from there."

In response to hundreds of angry emails from disappointed Germans, the aquarium actually did take extra precautions, Porwoll said.

"I even told our guards and people at the entrance to keep a close look at possible for football fans coming after Paul for revenge," he said. He added, however, that the number of love declarations and requests for predictions outweighed the hate mail.

While Paul is no doubt the world's most famous animal oracle these days, he is facing competition. In Singapore, Mani, a World Cup-forecasting parakeet, predicted a different outcome of Sunday's final match.

Creeping out of his small wooden cage and choosing between two white cards - one hiding a Dutch flag, the other Spanish - the bird predicted the Netherlands will win its first World Cup championship, setting up a Mani-Paul showdown for tomorrow.

In South Africa, Spanish defender Carlos Marchena said he wasn't putting too much stock in Paul.

"It's only an octopus," he said.


Ninjacrown....