REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
He’s been one of the world’s hottest topics this past month and has even “spoken” to TIME’s World Cup blog. But now Paul the psychic octopus is the subject of an international transfer request. Hold onto your tentacles.
Paul is an understandable hero to the Spanish, after he bravely predicted the eventual World Cup winners would defeat Germany in the semi-final. He then went with them again in the final, with Spain’s victory meaning the octopus went eight for eight. To show how serious they were about taking care of him, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero offered to send a security team to protect Paul from hungary — and angry — German soccer fans. But now a northwestern Spanish town has gone one step further: they want to bring him over.
Officials in O Caraballino (population 14,000) have labeled Paul their “honorary friend” and would like him to promote a seafood festival. And a local businessman apparently offered $40,000 to buy him, but the Oberhausen’s Sea Life aquarium has turned down the offers. And you thought the trade deadline in baseball could be exciting.
This is but the latest attempt from Spain, where there have been hundreds of requests to bring Paul to the land of the paella. The highest profile of which probably came from the Madrid Zoo earlier this week, who want him as a tribute to the country lifting the World Cup for the first time. Germany has so far not succumbed but it’s clear that this story still has legs (yes, eight of them in this case.)