Shaheen the camel scores with World Cup predictions

An Emirati camel is taking the football world by storm, correctly predicting the outcome of several matches at the FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil this month.

Shaheen the Camel, from Dubai, predicts the outcome of football matches from his desert home in the UAE, where he chooses between the flags of whoever is playing that day. He has successfully predicted the winner in five of seven matches so far, prompting comparisons to famous animal oracle “Paul the Octopus”, who rose to prominence during the 2010 world cup in South Africa.

The camel’s two mistakes were understandable, when he sided with most pundits in selecting Portugal and Spain to beat Germany and Chile respectively, although two defeats shocked not only Shaheen but most of the footballing world. His latest prediction has boosted hopes for England fans, as he has chosen them to triumph over Uruguay on Thursday evening in Sao Paulo.

The Brazilian world cup has shone in its first week, after a series of exciting matches packed with goals and surprise results. Regional representatives Iran and Algeria have fared reasonably well too, with the Iranians picking up a valuable point against Nigeria and the boys from Algiers performing valiantly in a narrow defeat against the highly fancied Belgian team.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has been following the action closely, if his Twitter feed is anything to go by, where he posted a photo of him watching Monday’s match in his tracksuit bottoms in front a widescreen television.

As for Shaheen the camel, he will be hoping his fate does not mirror that of the last successful football predictor from the animal world. Shortly after the South African world cup came to an end four years ago, Paul the octopus, who correctly predicted the outcome of eight matches, died in his tank at an aquarium in Germany.

Paul soared to such fame with his football predictions that he was picked up by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power to help their customers in making their gambling choices. He was even the subject of a song which went viral on social media sites.

Paul was not without his haters though, and after he correctly picked Spain to beat Germany in a semi-final match, German fans responded by calling for him to cooked and eaten. Luckily for Paul, however, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero stepped in to offer him official state protection.