What am I doing here, travel diary, day 20: journalists, influencers and animal predictions

The halls and press boxes of the World Cup are something like Noah’s Ark in which there are specimens of all kinds of this rare and special species that we journalists and photojournalists are. Although journalists and photojournalists have not been alone for a long time because, as if it were a strange sequence in an evolutionary chain, now we have the company of influencers, which are slowly gaining ground and in the not too distant future will be the majority. In fact, even now, some are closer to players and coaches for reasons of affinity. Reasons? Because they follow each other on social media, and because they generally rarely criticize each other. Moreover, they are worth accepting, because they interpret the changing moods of the younger audience faster.

Thus, in the press rooms these two species coexist which look the same but are very different. There are those who work in gala clothes, love to go to a wedding or a 15th birthday party and appear stiff and made up on TV, the graphic press workers who are always a bit sloppy (I’ll note it here) and at the opposite extreme those who wear shorts, flip flops or pilusos armed with a mobile phone with the camera upside down to tell everything, absolutely everything, what is happening around them. It concerns a kind of media zoo around the great circus that is this World Cup. It will be necessary to see what remains if a universal flood falls again.

Speaking of zoos, there is a very big one here in Qatar.. It is in Al Khor, the city north of Doha where the inaugural match between Ecuador and Qatar was played and where Germany has just been eliminated. It has approximately 240,000 square meters and is home to more than 300 animals of over 50 different species with crocodiles for all tastes, giant cats and rhinos, as well as a huge range of birds.

The stars of this zoo, however, are two giant pandas who are the latest addition. Their names are Suhail and Thuraia and since 19 October they have been in their new home, which has 464 trees and 2,814 bamboo plants. The idea is that they are in an ecosystem as similar as possible to their native China. Both were a gift from the Asian giant on the occasion of the World Cup and after 40 days of quarantine, the albinegro bears can now be visited in exchange for 50 riyals, about 13.5 dollars, for those over 14 and half the price for minors.

However, Suhail and Thuraia transcend the limits of the natural park inhabiting the town which used to be one of the oldest villages in this emirate. Is that they are also television stars since they took on the role of heirs of Paul, that German octopus who became famous in South Africa 2010 for his high number of hits when he predicted who would win each match of that competition.

During that African World Cup, Paul predicted the outcome of several matches. What was he doing? They put two mussels divided into two boxes which carried the flag of the teams facing each other. Choosing the mussel, winning team. Sometimes, of course… he had his breakthrough when he picked Spain in the final against the Netherlands. Unfortunately, after his month of fame, Paul later died at the Sea Life Oceanarium in Oberhausen when he was two and a half years old. An early death? No, most octopuses have that life expectancy.

How are Suhail and Thuraia? Of. For example, in the duel between Argentina and Mexico they chose the North Americans and added a few more failures. But then they took revenge and predicted the triumph of the national team over Poland and the shock of Japan against Spain. Thus, the owners of the BeIN Sports chain continue to give opportunities to these two cute Chinese pandas, who are not tempted by mussels but by delicious portions of fresh bamboo.

Beware, Suhail and Thuraia compete because, it is worth saying, the idea is already unoriginal. The Alkass Sports chain, also on Qatari TV, has Book as its forecaster, a falcon that in flight picks up one of the two flags of the two selected teams that face each other every day tempted by a bit of carrion. However, poor Book botched the opening game and lost some credibility with the punters.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.