Mathematician explains predictions for who will win World Cup 2026 with 'proven' method
A German mathematician claims to have predicted the winner of the upcoming 2026 World Cup – despite not believing in his own model.
We're now a week out from the football tournament kicking off in Mexico City, with most major betting firms currently touting Spain, France and England to lift the trophy.
But you might wanna hold off on backing one of the above three as the winner, as a mathematician Joachim Klement has thrown his support behind a different country.
And this isn't just a hunch from Klement, as he has correctly predicted the winners - Germany in Brazil 2014, France in Russia 2018 and Argentina in Qatar 2022 - of the last three World Cups.
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Which is pretty impressive.
So which squad does Klement foresee coming out on top?
That would be the Netherlands, which is annoyingly not the team I've been given in my office sweepstake.
Despite being one of the stronger teams in the tournament, the Dutch national team has yet to lift the trophy, meaning that many people will be fearful of the Oranje choking once again.
"Things like that are completely unpredictable."
The accuracy of his predictions previously caught Klement off guard, with the mathematician telling Der Spiegel that he was 'horrified' upon realising that his prediction model had been accurate in 2014.
"Because I was right three times in a row, people now think that this model is unbeatable and that I obviously will have to be right as well next time, Klement said, via BBC Sport.
Despite his apparent knack for calling the outcome of World Cups of the past, Klement has urged people not to bet large sums of money on the back of his predictions.
"Every match - especially when you have these high-quality teams playing against each other that are very similar in skills and quality - it really depends on the form of the day, a ref call, a piece of luck in the sense of hitting the post versus the ball going in," he said.
"Things like that are completely unpredictable."
Going on to compare predicting the winner to 'playing the lottery' Klement told ESPN that anyone who takes his predictions seriously is 'beyond help'.
So now you know Klement's prediction for the tournament's winner, would you like to know England's fate?
It's disappointing in form with the team's previous results, with Klement predicting that Thomas Tuchel's team will lose during a semi-final match against Portugal.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands will make it to the final after seeing off Spain, before pulling off an upset against Ronaldo's team.
Brenna Cooper