Thai Baby Hippo Mudeng, Who Predicted Trump’s Victory, Picks Argentina to Win the World Cup

However, in the semifinals Mudeng chose "France and England"
Supercomputer analysis favors Spain to win

Two years ago during the U.S. presidential election, Thailand’s famous baby hippo “Mudeng” attracted attention for predicting that Republican candidate Donald Trump would win. Ahead of the FIFA 2026 North and Central America World Cup final, Mudeng is back in the spotlight after choosing Argentina as the winner.

Thailand's superstar baby hippo "Mudeng" is eating a watermelon labeled with the name of Argentina. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

On July 19, outlets including EFE News Agency reported that the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi Province, central Thailand, had Mudeng predict the result of the North and Central America World Cup final, which will be held at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on July 19 (4:00 a.m. Korean time on July 20). Mudeng was presented with two soccer ball-shaped watermelons—one decorated with the Spanish and the other with the Argentine flags, each labeled with their country abbreviations (ESP and ARG) in English. Without hesitation, Mudeng chose the one for Argentina.

A zoo official explained, “This event is intended to amuse visitors and to give Mudeng an opportunity for exercise. It was not meant to support any particular team or to encourage betting, which is prohibited in Thailand.”

While Mudeng successfully predicted Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. election two years ago, the baby hippo’s prediction for the World Cup semis last week was completely off, having selected France and England as the finalists in a similar event held before the semis.

Although predictions for World Cup winners or election victors by animals have never been proven reliable, there have been many similar cases in the past. During the 2010 South Africa World Cup, Paul the Octopus in Germany correctly predicted Spain’s championship. In the 2018 Russia World Cup, Achilles the cat accurately guessed the outcomes of all four group stage matches involving Russia, displaying what many called “special abilities.”

Meanwhile, ‘Opta,’ a football statistics site known for predicting winners with every round using supercomputer simulations, announced its 'final prediction' on July 17: Spain was given a 56.05% chance of winning, while Argentina's odds stood at 43.95%.

Argentina, led by “superstar” Lionel Messi, is aiming for a second consecutive championship following their 2022 Qatar victory. Only two teams—Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962)—have managed to win back-to-back World Cups, an achievement Argentina hopes to replicate after 64 years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.