Paul the Octopus Joins England World Cup Bid

August 20th, 2010 | by: Daryl | View Comments

When I heard that Paul the Octopus was recording an album titled Paul the Octopus Sings Elvis, I cried a little for the state of the world. But I also took comfort in the fact that this whole octopus thing had reached a firm upper limit of bizarreness. Because things don’t get any weirder or stupider than a cephalopod mollusc who a) lives underwater and b) has no vocal cords, somehow recording an album. Of Elvis songs. I was of course wrong.

Because Paul the Octopus has been made an ambassador for England’s 2018 World Cup bid. Yep, England’s. After Paul achieved his fame in a German tank predicting Germany’s results, he’s going to be the face of the England World Cup bid.

My initial reaction is that this is typical of English football. England has no quality underwater ambassadors of their own, despite being mostly surrounded by water. There are of course some talented young barnacles in the English channel. But they lack experience. So the England World Cup bid has paid an expensive foreigner to perform its ambassadorial duties.

However, turns out that – much like Simone Perrotta – Paul was actually born in England. Specifically in Weymouth:

“Paul has spent the last two years of his life in Germany, but he is definitely a proud Englishman,” Weymouth Sea Life Center manager Nicola Hamilton said. “We have had a number of football approaches from around the world, but Paul was only ever going to choose his homeland.”

Of course he was. And I’m sure Paul was fully involved in that decision.

This might bring a bit of publicity to the England World Cup bid, but feels like a pretty tacky stunt to me, and one that could very easily backfire. How long before Paul pulls a Lord Triesman and gets trapped into predicting something terrible about the Russians by a tabloid journalist?