Rabio the octopus, who correctly predicted all of Japan’s group stage matches in the FIFA World Cup 2018 has been killed and turned into sashimi, as reported by the local media.
The mollusc had chosen the winner of Japan’s matches during an experiment in a paddling pool. The giant Pacific octopus had successfully predicted that Japan would the lost against Poland but he was unfortunately not around to see his words come true.
Even though the octopus had gained national attention for his correct predictions, the fisherman who had caught Rabio, Kimio Abe, decided to send him to the market before Japan’s final group game. Abe added that another octopus will be used to predict future matches at Russia 2018.
“I’m glad all the forecasts turned out correct and Japan moved on to the knockout stage,” Abe told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper before Japan’s loss to Belgium in the last 16. “I hope Rabio’s successor will accurately tip the results of all games.”
Rabio is not the first oracle octopus to predict World Cup matches. German invertebrate Paul the octopus correctly predicted six World Cup games in 2010. Meanwhile, Russian cat Achilles had predicted Switzerland’s win over Sweden in Tuesday’s Round of 16 match and he came up short as the opposite happened.
Till now, Achilles has two of his predictions wrong — Nigeria knocking out Argentina from the World Cup and Switzerland defeated Sweden. Other than that, he correctly predicted that Russia will beat Saudi Arabia in the opener, Iran’s win over Morocco and that Brazil would beat Costa Rica.