Paul the Octopus shot to fame with his eerily accurate prediction of results at the 2010 World Cup, but now a prophetic Ukrainian pig will continue the trend by forecasting the outcome of Euro 2012 matches, Kiev government spokesperson Svetlana Bovkun told RIA Novosti on Friday.
Billed as “an expert on the mysteries of football” by organizers, a pig known simply as the Soothsayer Hog will predict the result of one game a day by choosing between two plates of food every afternoon, with each plate each bearing the flag of one of the teams taking part.
“He’s really been looking forward to the tournament. He watches all football matches with his owner. He’s very kind and very friendly,” Bovkun said.
She added that the Soothsayer Hog will have “his own little house” built for him at the Kiev fan zone in the capital of tournament co-host Ukraine.
Pigs are known as intelligent animals, able to understand that they see their own reflection in a mirror, but reports of their psychic abilities are few and far between.
Paul the Octopus correctly predicted the outcome of every match Germany played at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, as well as Spain’s victory over the Netherlands in the final.
Since Paul passed away in October 2010, a number of other so-called psychic creatures have tried to claim his mantle, especially in Germany, where Paul lived when he made his predictions, but none has yet reached the same heights of fame, or indeed accuracy.
