BERLIN: Madrid zoo made a transfer bid for Paul the oracle octopus on Thursday, telling his aquarium in Germany it would outbid all others and give him a warm welcome in gratitude for predicting Spain's soccer World Cup win.
But Paul's keepers at Sea Life in Germany said the tentacled tipster was not on the transfer list.
Paul, credited variously with psychic powers or incredible insight into soccer, even for a species considered the cleverest of all invertebrates, became a celebrity for managing a perfect eight-for-eight record tipping winners in South Africa.
The octopus predicted football matches by picking food from two different transparent containers lowered into his tank, each adorned with the flag of one of the matches' competitors.
Paul earned Spain's affection for accurately tipping them to beat the Dutch in the final, but in Germany he became the butt of bitter jokes about grilled octopus and 'pulpo a la gallega' after predicting its defeats to Serbia and Spain.
