Paul the octopus tips Spain to win World Cup

Paul the psychic octopus; world cup football final results

But Paul the celebrity Cephalopod disagrees with Mani the fortune-telling parakeet

LAST UPDATED 12:13 PM, JULY 9, 2010

Spanish football fans have reason to be confident ahead of the World Cup final on Sunday, as their team been picked to win by perhaps the most reliable tipster on the planet - Paul, the psychic octopus.

Paul has become a worldwide phenomenon during the World Cup and, after correctly predicting the result of all Germany's games, he has now plumped for Spain to beat Holland in the final on Sunday.

The Weymouth-born cephalopod, who now lives at the Sea Life Aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen, made his latest prediction on Friday, when he chose a mussel from a box containing a Spanish flag rather than the one with a Dutch flag on it.

Although he usually only predicts the outcome of games featuring his adopted country he was persuaded to have a punt on the winner of the final after first predicting who would win the third place play-off between Germany and Uruguay. His keepers were concerned that he could be "too tired" to choose between the finalists after the mental exertion required to decide that Germany would win the game, but in the end proved up to the task.

Paul faced the ire of German fans after he opted, correctly, for Spain to win their semi-final. But such is his international fame that senior politicians have stepped in to protect him. Spanish prime minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero said: "I am concerned for the octopus. I am thinking of sending him a protective team."

While Spanish environment and fisheries minister Elena Espinosa announced: "On Monday, I shall be at the European Council of Ministers and I shall be asking for a [fishing] ban on Paul the octopus so the Germans do not eat him."

There are two slivers of hope for Dutch fans. One is that Paul has only previously predicted the outcome of matches featuring Germany, so his psychic abilities may not stretch beyond that.

The second is that a psychic parakeet in Malaysia thinks that the Dutch will emerge victorious. The 13-year-old bird, called Mani, correctly predicted the winners of the quarter finals and tipped Spain to beat Germany in the semis.

Mani is no stranger to future-gazing as she belongs to an 80-year-old fortune teller known as Mr Muniyappan, and has been helping him impart advice for five years.