The world mourns Paul the octopus, Maradona doesn’t
By DPA, IANSWednesday, October 27, 2010
BERLIN - The international football community Wednesday mourned the death of Paul the Psychic Octopus while Diego Maradona was apparently pleased.
Paul made a last round of global headlines after his German aquarium announced that he died in the night between Monday and Tuesday.
Paul gained worldwide fame at the World Cup by correctly predicting the winner of Germany’s seven games in South Africa and the final between Spain and the Netherlands as well.
The sad news made it onto the website of the ruling football body FIFA and newspapers around the world.
Paul’s Facebook page was filled with comments and users also expressed their grief on social networking site, twitter. He was named a true star of the World Cup and some suggested he should be nominated for the World Player of the Year award.
However, Maradona was also jubilant at Paul’s demise, saying: “I am happy your gone Psychic Octopus, it’s your fault we lost the World Cup.”
The games Paul accurately predicted included Germany’s quarter-final against Argentina, which the Germans won 4-0 to end Maradona’s term as Argentina coach.
The predictions were made by lowering boxes into Paul’s tank, each containing a mussel and a flag of the two teams. The box from which he ate the mussel was deemed to be the winner.
The aquarium in Oberhausen announced it would set up a small monument in his honour.
