…Paul the octopus.

Now that the world cup is well and truly over I am pleased to announce that the winner of the PR trophy for the tournament is indeed the world’s first mystic cephalopod, Paul.

Various media have gone to great lengths to keep us informed of Paul’s background – born in the UK, currently living in Germany, favourite food – mussels and his favourite pastime – making children laugh. As I cannot recall knowing such facts about any of the footballers involved in the tournament I can only conclude that in addition to his psychic powers Paul has fantastic control of his media portrayal.

Paul has also remained humble in the wake of his triumph – a quality which many players may do well to emulate. But perhaps most importantly Paul seems keen to retire at the height of his success – until, perhaps, he receives a tempting offer to showcase his new aquarium to his adoring fans and talk about his latest book signing tour!

And all I can say about that is, if there is ever an octopus signing autobiographies then I will definitely be in that queue.