In the recently concluded World Cup one of the few things that stole the attention of the world was Germany's Psych Paul the Octopus.

This Psych which leaves in one of Germany's Sea life Aquarium in Oberhausen and was born in England in 2008 got international recognition and stardom when it perfectly predicted all the eight matches that it was required to predict at the World Cup.

However it attracted the most attention when it predicted that Germany would lose the semi final match to Spain and indeed Germany lost to Spain. Earlier it had predicted perfectly all Germany's five games to that date including Germany's loss to Serbia in the group stages and later correctly predicted that Germany would win the third play off encounter with Uruguay and that Spain would win the World Cup trophy which happened as correctly as the prediction.

Some will call this superstition and indeed there is little doubt that it is but this is not the first time that football as a game is being littered with strange superstition from teams, coaches and individual players of the beautiful game.

Superstition is a norm in football that stretches as far back as early as the days when the world cup days of Pele or even earlier and has had been the reason of some of the strangest behavior in the game that included out rightly bizarre acts; as bizarre as urinating on the football pitch in the name of superstition.

That is why we bring you some of the most astonishing acts done under the influence of superstition in the football history. They may be strange but they were done and they have been recorded in the history of the game.

The curse of the long beard
To begin with just in the recently concluded World Cup the Spanish goal keeper talisman Ilka Cassilas revealed after his country's win against Honduras that got Spain's world cup campaign back on course that he had shaved off his beard because during the 2008 Euro campaigns he had always kept his beard short and the Real Madrid Star believed that  the shaving of his beard was the reason why for the reversal of the fortunes of his country in the tournament.  Spain went ahead to the world cup.

The blessing of a salty pitch
The Former Pisa coach Romeo Ancenonatti is renowned for his eccentric behavior had an unusual superstition. Before every game the Italian would throw salt unto the pitch and the bigger the game the more salt he would throw. In one particularly important game against local rivals Cesena, it said that Ancenonatti distributed 26kgs of salt on the pitch.

The secret of having the last laugh in the dressing room
England legend Bobby Moore would put on his shorts last after every one else in the dressing room essentially becoming the last one to put on his shorts. Call it having the last laugh in the dressing room if you want.

None the less Moore's teammates were keen on teasing him for the strange behavior as Martin Peters one of his English mates would pull down his shorts after Moore and had put on his and the typical Moore would drop his shorts again. Peter Martins was fascinated by the way Moore always stood around holding the shorts waiting for everyone to else to finish dressing before he could dress.

The stars do the magic
The former French Coach Raymond Domenech admits that he takes players' star signs into consideration before selecting his team. He has great fear for selecting Leos for his team as he superstitiously always imagines that they will always cost his team. "When I have a Leo in Defence, I have always got my gun ready as I know he is going to want to show off at one moment or another and cost us" He thinks less of Scorpios though that did not stop him from selecting Thierry Henry and William Gallas for his team because in the final analysis "they play a bit."

No wonder that Werder Bremen's Johan Micoud sarcastically alluded to this behavior of the former French Coach and in relation to his exclusion from the French squad that turned up at the 2006 world to play for France saying "He (Domenech) was my coach at the Under 21 level, ten years ago but apart from that I have never been chosen by him," said Micoud. "May be I am not in the squad because my Star sign is Leo."

The kiss of victory
In the 1998 world cup it is said that Laurent Blanc the Former French International defender and newly Appointed coach of the national team of France kissed the bald head of the Goal keeper of France then Fabien Barthez prior to every single game that France played in the tournament hoping that the kissing would be the source of blessings that would help them win matches during the course of the tournament. France went ahead and won the World Cup that year.

The bad luck in eating chicken
In 1986 Maradona and his hand of God may be the reason you know for having inspired Argentina to their World Cup Victory that year but behind the scenes was the fact the Argentine players were banned from eating chicken that year as it was believed by the then Argentine coach Carlos Bilardo that eating chicken brought bad luck.

Doesn't this remind of those superstitions in our own African context that ban women from tasting certain parts of the chicken as these are reserved for men? The coach also carried the statute of Virgin Mary to every single game. Further during the course of the tournament one day the Argentinean bus broke down on their way to a match forcing them to take taxis. The South Americans won that match and Bilardo compelled his team to take taxis to each of their games for the rest of the competition. They won the competition.

Holy is thine water
The Irish International goal keeper Shay Given always takes a vial of Holy Water unto the pitch to be placed in the back of his goal. Coincidentally the current Ireland Coach Giovanni Trapatonni also has the same obsession with holy water. He routinely sprinkles part of the pitch with holy water provided by his sister who happens to be a nun.

Sitting in the same seat does the trick
The Chelsea and English International Defender, John Terry has confessed to being so superstitious before. "I have got to have the same seat on the bus, tie the tapes round my socks three times and cut my tubular grip and shin pads the same size every game. I also drive to games listening to the same Usher CD in my car," Terry admits.

Yellow is not the colour
The former coach of Spain Louis Aragones has a strong aversion to the color yellow. Prior to the 2006 Germany World Cup finals Aragones was presented with a banquet of yellow flowers which he rejected. Once former Spanish Captain Raul had a yellow jersey to a Spanish training session and as expected the coach forced him to change it.

The blessed shirt
The Brazil legend Abed Pele once dispatched a friend to track down his shirts which playing shirts he had given to another friend with orders to that friend to have those shirts retrieved from the other friend at all costs after suffering a dip in his form. A week later the friend handed Pele "shirt" back and striker's form immediately returned. His friend had just chosen not to tell him that the search had been futile and he had simply given him the same shirt he had won in the previous match.

Now the most disgusting of it all
The keeper of Argentina in the 1990 World cup tournament Sergio Goycochea was remarkably involved in arguably the most disgusting of all superstitions which was that every time he was involved in penalty shoot out he would urinate on the pitch in the name of superstition.  This superstitious act was hugely criticized for the health implications it posed to the game but that in no way affected the Argentine's belief in the superstitious act.

Finally why players should not be influenced by superstition
The Dutch legend Johan Cruyff has advised managers to ensure that their players are not influenced by superstition "If does influence them" he cautioned. "You can not adequately use them in the next match."