Who will be the new 'Paul' the octopus?

One of the things which we remember from last years 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was Paul the octopus and his predictions about Germany matches from an Aquarium in Oberhausen. But Paul died late last year, so now the search is on for the new Paul for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany which kicks-off tomorrow.

Interesting Sealife, who housed Paul in their aquarium in Oberhausen, have started a contest amongst their octopus' in different Sealife Aquariums across Germany. Eight Octopus are now taking part in predicting the games of the German Women's national team.

But can Paul be really replaced? We will only know in a few weeks time, but with Germany being the two time defending champions and having not conceded a goal in China four years ago it wouldn't that difficult to pick a winner. And the uniqueness of Paul's achievement is lost in such a competition, but maybe I am proved wrong and we have another phenomenon as Paul in this tournament.


Here a report my colleague Ragini Kumar and I did last year about Paul the octopus for Times Now

Paul the Octopus no more

Paul the psychic octopus died overnight at the Sea Life in Oberhausen, western Germany. And as if the story would continue to haunt me even after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I actually got a call around lunch time from India telling me that Paul the psychic octopus had died. At that time I had no clue about Paul's death, but it wasn't to be the last call from India about the topic as people remembered me reporting live for Times Now from the aquarium ahead of Paul's final day pick for the third place playoff and final.

Paul had received global media attention after predicting all of Germany's seven matches at the 2010 FIFA World Cup correctly plus also picking Spain as the new world champions. An precidented eight out eight, which made Paul an instant celebrity; but he also had enemies who wanted to kill and eat him. It sometimes became a bizarre media story.

"Management and staff at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre were devastated to discover that oracle octopus Paul, who achieved global renown during the recent World Cup, had passed away overnight," the aquarium said in a statement.

"He appears to have passed away peacefully during the night, of natural causes," said Sea Life manager Stefan Porwoll.

Paul was born in English waters, but brought early in life to Oberhausen. He made predictions of the Germany matches at the 2008 European Championships, getting four out of five results right, but no one would really follow the story. His breakthrough came after the Ghana game after he had predicted three matches correctly and the media hype grew with each passing game, reaching a never before seen climax on the Friday before the final weekend. Over the last few weeks it had become quiet about Paul and he died last night aged three of natural causes.


Here two of my own blog posts on Paul the Octopus during and after the 2010 FIFA World Cup:

July 9: The craze around Octopus Paul

July 16: Octopus Paul still a craze in India

Octopus Paul still a craze in India

The real superstar of the 2010 FIFA World Cup wasn't a player on the pitch, but rather a two and a half year old Octopus at the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany. And I am amazed that in India the craze around Psychic Paul is still on, while here in Germany Paul is still part of private conversations and gossip, but he has disappeared from the media limelight.

Here in Germany people now regard Paul as having been an episode in this years World Cup. A surely crazy one, getting eight out of eight predictions right is a big achievement, but now it is history. But I had to realise that in India Paul is still a big topic, even after the end of the World Cup.

I have received numerous mails with attachments showing different pictures of Paul. My favourite one is the one in which Paul is deciding on the winner of a match between Brazil and India. It is the final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and not surprisingly Paul the Octopus decides on India winning their first World Cup. I just love that picture, my only worry is that India needs to qualify for the 2026 edition. Thereafter the prediction can come true. Isn't it?

Another one which I have received shows Paul sitting in a birds cage besides an Indian fortune teller. Paul is deciding the future of the customers under the title "Aap ka future" (your future) by picking the cards, while the parrot who used to house in the cage is looking back at his old job and holds up a placard saying "urgently need a job".

Just to let you all know. The Sea Life in Oberhausen has officially announced on Monday that Paul is retiring from the business of football match predictions and will focus once more on being only an Octopus in an aquarium.

The craze around Octopus Paul

The city of Oberhausen in the Ruhr valley has lived a quiet life for long. The city with a population of over 200,000 has not seen anything close to what happened earlier today when Psychic Octopus Paul at the Sea Life Aquarium was ready to pick the winners of for the third place playoff between Germany and Uruguay and the big final on Sunday between the Netherlands and Spain.

Over 120 journalists were present at Sea Life to cover Paul's predictions. Not only journalists from Germany, Spain or the Netherlands were present but from across Europe, from even Brazil, Japan, the USA and even from India.

And it would be a once in a lifetime experience as this is likely Paul's last predictions on a football World Cup as Paul is now two and a half years old and as an octopus has maximum another year to live. Incredible what I have learned about an octopus over the last few days which I hadn't learned many years back in biology.

And today was the climax of Paul's predictions as for the first time the octopus would have to predict two matches and the people at Sea Life where sceptical if Paul would be up to the task, but Paul luckily was as the world was watching. On the first occasion he took his time switching over the German and Uruguayan boxes before deciding that Germany would win and picking his mussel from the German box. About half an hour later Paul was back in action, this time he would have to predict who would win the World Cup. And for the first time he would give his predictions on a match not involving Germany. And this would be a quick one as he decided that Spain would be the new world champions.

For me Paul has meant a lot of work over the last couple of days. And today was the highlight as I had to do live commentary on Indian news channel Times Now on what Paul was choosing or not. First on the Germany vs Uruguay game, where it was like a normal football match as Paul seemed indecisive and switched sides and as I had to talk it felt like a never ending story. Then his quick decision on Spain, but for the onlookers close-by it wasn't that clear and TV replay was needed to say, "Paul has picked Spain to be the new world champions!"

It was a first for me and luckily I had read up some infos on Paul, his life and how he predicts, otherwise I would have been lost on the live telecast. I hope for those of you who where watching it wasn't too boring. Commentating on a football match is much much easier. Believe me...