While the world debates tactics and statistics, a Belgian cat named Maximus picked his food bowl and got the first match of the 2026 World Cup right. 🐱
Here’s how his method works: Prime Minister Bart De Wever places two bowls at the ends of a table with a tablecloth shaped like a field, one for each team. Maximus walks over, chooses, and that’s it — prediction made. In his debut, he chose Mexico’s bowl, and Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 in the opening match. Perfect. Then he bet on the Czech Republic, which lost to South Korea 2-1. Not so perfect. But no one took the throne away from him.
What De Wever didn’t anticipate is that his pet, dubbed ‘Maximus the Octopussy’ in honor of Paul the Octopus from the 2010 World Cup, has already surpassed him on Instagram: 226,000 followers to his 218,000. The prime minister acknowledged it with humor. Because when your cat beats you in popularity, the only thing you can do is laugh. 😅