Paul, the so-called "octopus oracle"
Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters/Landov
He went straight for the mussel snack in the box marked with the German flag, his own intuitive (and hungry) method of revealing his pick to win. German news channels broadcast the event live, with eyes glued to the tube as Paul hesitated slightly before making his choice.
At the moment, Paul has correctly predicted the winner of all six of Germany's World Cup matches: four victories and two losses, including the quarter-final loss against Spain.
As a result of that last call, Paul is not very popular in Germany these days. Newsweekly Der Spiegel reports that the Twittersphere is buzzing with death threats against the octopus in the form of calamari recipes.
Spain is even considering offering Paul asylum "so that the Germans don't eat him," environmental minister Elena Espinosa tells Der Spiegel. Paul's final prediction was that Spain would beat Holland for the World Cup championship.
It took two overtimes Sunday, but Paul was right: Spain won 1-0.
