The name of la vedette (the “star”) of this Coupe du Monde 2010 hasn’t been a Rooney, a Ronaldo, a Drogba, a Messi, or a Schweinsteiger. Instead, the very unlikely vedette is named “Paul le Poulpe” (“Paul the Octopus”), who is reputedly endowed with no less than neuf cerveaux (nine brains), several tentacules (tentacles), and un sixième sens (a sixth sense) to predict the outcome of the 2010 World Cup games with a staggering accuracy that has not been disproved… as of yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3frT-MWyIoM

It is not une première dans l’histoire (a first time in history) that an animal served as an “oracle”: From the American “Lady Wonder” and the German “Kluge Hans” (“Clever Hans”) horses, to the CSI-Miami-like “Harass 2” dog, les examples of so-called “psychic animals” foisonnent (abound.)

In the case of Paul le Poulpe, the accuracy rate of his Coupe du Monde predictions, till the time of this writing, is a remarkable cent pour cent (100%).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74PWmVHwqPY

It all started this Summer when Paul, an English-born octopus who currently is a host of a sealife attraction center at the German town of Oberhausen, near Düsseldorf, was able to correctly foretell the results of the high-profile games played by his pays d’accueil (host country), l’Allemagne (Germany): Its victories over l’Australie, le Ghana, l’Angleterre (England), and l’Argentine, as well as –chose fort remarquable (quite remarkably)- its stunning defeat against la Serbie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tEpXROJeBk

The Germans were longing to clinch an incisive victory over les Matadors espagnols yesterday, en guise de (as a means of) a little “payback” for the Euro 2008 final which Spain won back then, but just as Paul le Poulpe has –encore une fois (once again)- anticipated, it was l’Espagne who has advanced to la finale (the final game), which will take place this Sunday, le 11 Juillet (July 11th), at la capitale sud-africaine, Johannesburg.

* Menaces de mort contre Paul le Poulpe ! (Death threats against Paul the Octopus!)

Bien entendu (of course), les predictions de Paul ne font pas que des heureux (Paul’s predictions don’t make everybody happy.) Already since his prediction against l’Angleterre made in favor of Germany, many Englishmen have denounced his “perfide traîtrise” (perfidious betrayal) against his own pays natal (native country), with some of them openly anxious to see him publicly boiled or fried (somewhere near the Tower of London, most likely!) 

Many Argentinian fans who saw much to their chagrin Paul’s prediction coming true after their national team suffered une défaite écrasante (a crushing defeat) at the hands –or rather, literally, “at the feet”- of the Mannschaft squad, have also joined the angry rally against Paul le Poulpe, and they did not include only les amateurs des fruits de mer (the seafood amateurs.)

Finally, we know now from Jennie’s great previous post about le Tour de France -the other sports attraction of this Summer- that she’s rooting for la Hollande all the way. 
If, God forbid, Paul le Poulpe correctly predicts a Spanish win over the Dutch team, shall we in turn predict that Jennie’s next post will be titled (along the lines of): “Une délicieuse tarte au poulpe” (“A delicious Octopus Pie”)…?

– Since Jennie is a New Yorker, she might enjoy this: http://www.octopuspie.com/about.php