Italy may emerge from the 2010 World Cup having got something right after all if a claim that the famous result-predicting octopus, Paul, is Italian is proved correct.
Paul, who lives in a tank at the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany, has been predicting football results since 2008 by choosing his food from one of two boxes
labelled with the national flags of the teams due to play.
Until yesterday it was thought that Paul was hatched in Weymouth, England but now his trainer, Verena Bartsch, has claimed in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag” that
she herself captured him off the Island of Elba in April. At that time Paul was just four weeks old and no more than 10 centimetres long. According to Ms Bartsch Paul
was then left in an acquarium in Coburg and later sold to the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre for 179 euros. There, she began training him.
The Italian media are already calling Paul, “il nostro Paolo”.
