‘Psychic’ Thai lion Boy successfully predicts four Euro 2020 match results

The five-year-old white lion lives at a zoo in northeast Thailand and makes predictions by grabbing meat marked with national flags from a wire above his pen

For Friday’s England-Scotland match, zoo observers ruled that Boy had made a clear grab at the Scots’ meat first, suggesting victory for the Tartan Army

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Boy, a five-year-old white lion, lunges at a piece of meat hanging under the flag of Scotland, instead of the piece under the England flag at Khon Kaen Zoo in Khon Kaen, northeast Thailand on Friday. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:39am, 19 Jun 2021Updated: 5:18am, 19 Jun 2021

Move over Paul the Octopus, Thailand has a new claimant to the football forecasting crown: Boy the “psychic” lion, who has so far correctly called four Euro 2020 matches.

Boy, a five-year-old white lion who lives at a zoo in northeast Thailand, makes his predictions by grabbing meat marked with national flags from a wire above his pen.

His oracular exploits recall cephalopod Paul, the salty seer who achieved global fame by correctly predicting eight 2010 World Cup matches from his aquarium in Germany.

Boy the lion lunges at a piece of meat hanging under the flag of Poland, instead of the piece under Spain’s flag at Khon Kaen Zoo in Thailand on Friday. Photo: AFP

Boy has notched four successes in the first round of matches, including world champions and tournament favourites France clawing their way 1-0 past Germany on Wednesday.

He also forecast the “Three Lions” of England’s win over Croatia, Netherlands’ narrow victory over Ukraine and Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal’s demolition of Hungary.