Paul the Octopus still casts a long shadow over the 2010 World Cup. He correctly predicted eight out of eight games, a perfect run that has kept him at the centre of soccer's strangest superstition even as newer animal forecasters have come and gone.
That legacy is back in focus because World Cup prediction rituals keep returning, and not all of them are built to last. In one recent test on TVNZ Breakfast before New Zealand's campaign against Iran, Oli Sail held Bear close and whispered, “Alright, Buddy. Your moment to shine.”
Bear, a 12-week-old golden retriever-poodle cross, went towards the ball, licked it, and then veered off in the other direction. “Oh, he’s pooing on the floor!” Tova O’Brien said as the moment went sideways, and Sail added, “Don’t stand on it!” Chris Chang then cut through the noise with, “He’s going for New Zealand!” New Zealand later led twice but still drew 2-2 with Iran, which is the kind of messy outcome that keeps these games from being reduced to a simple stunt.
Paul’s reputation is not simple either. A flawless record is still a flawless record, but it came from one tournament, one run, and one animal whose guesses happened to land every time. That is what later acts have been measured against. Ritinha, a sandbar shark at an aquarium in Rio de Janeiro, swam to the Brazilian flag before Brazil’s opening game, only for Brazil to draw 1-1 with Morocco. She later backed Brazil to beat Haiti in match two, another reminder that one accurate choice does not make a streak. At the zoo in Guadalajara, Mexico, a gorilla, a puma, and a capybara all had a go at predicting matches, and Ashanti correctly backed Mexico to win their first four games before, as the round-of-16 meeting with England approached, she let her heart rule her head.
That is why Paul remains unsurpassed in this bizarre World Cup tradition. The 2010 World Cup did not just produce a perfect prediction record; it set the standard every later animal has been judged against, from Bear's wobble to Ritinha's mixed results. The next time someone reaches for a flag, a bowl, or a ball and asks for an omen, Paul will still be the name everyone knows.
