Finally, Paul the octopus stole soccer’s thunder

As football frenzy fans across the world are getting over their withdrawal symptoms after a month of triumphs, tears, heartbreaks, upsets and surprises, as 32 countries and millions of viewers limp back to normal existence, Paul the mystic octopus announces his retirement.

The last couple of days of the FIFA football fever certainly belonged to Paul the octopus.  Even sensational Shakira, with her superhit Waka Waka, could not compete with the interest generated by Paul's predictions. 

According to CNN, Paul the octopus -- who correctly predicted the outcome of eight World Cup matches in a row -- is officially retiring from the prediction business.

The two-year-old octopus, who was born in England, became a global celebrity during the soccer tournament. News channels around the world analysed the probability and gains of betting on Paul's predictions.

Paul brought into limelight these sea creatures that are also called 'devil-fish' due to their bizarre designs and colours.

They are bright coloured, spotted or striped, and sometimes change colours. They often take on pastel colours with coral designs on their bodies, which help them camouflage themselves on the ocean bed. 

The colour of an octopus can end up frightening other life forms in the ocean. They can be very dangerous too, since an octopus can swallow up an entire mid-sized whale.

While under water discovery holds a great deal of fascination for many a marine zoologist, it has not yet been established if octopuses possess extra-ordinary talents and special abilities.

As Paul's keeper and trainer Oliver Walenciak says, the predictions were an outcome of an experiment. Since Paul had earlier demonstrated special abilities and could open glasses boxes etc, they tried to get him to predict the European championships, one thing then led to another and he soon became the hero of the FIFA World Cup 2010.

His mystic powers have earned him a lot of fans, friends and enemies alike.  Bitter German fans have reportedly sent death warrants to his trainer and to Paul himself, saying "We want Paul for the pan". Living in Germany, it must have been hard for his trainer to handle the sea of emotions and extreme fury from passionate fans who love the sport and the German team equally. One wonders if the prime minister of Spain, Jose Luiz Rodriguez's call for bodyguards for the octopus was only in half jest.

Now that Paul is retiring, he will be available to train and to pass on some of his skills to younger cousins before his short but memorable life reaches its natural end.

Octopuses are known to live for about three years, and Paul is nearly two and a half years old. It is not known whether his predictive powers will reduce as he grows older, but he is retiring while at his very peak, in style on one hand, and with his dignity intact on the other. 

For now, he is busy enjoying his celebrity status and is posing for pictures with the streams of visitors who are making a beeline to get a picture taken with him at his aquarium in Germany. In fact, so iconic is Paul that this octopus has a page registered for himself in Wikipedia.