Joachim Klement had successfully predicted the winners of the last three World Cups, Germany in 2014, France in 2018 and Argentina in 2022. For this World Cup, he predicted that the winner would be the Netherlands, the world's leading media wrote on Thursday.
The Netherlands are seeking the World Cup trophy for the first time.
It has lost three finals, in 1974, 1978 and 2010 to Spain.
In all three finals, the Netherlands has had a successful generation of footballers, but this year they will be the winners according to Klementi, who is a mathematician by profession.
"The first time I was surprised when Germany became world champions in Brazil, because all the experts had said that no European team had ever won a World Cup in South America," he said.
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He says that he takes several reasons into account, including a country's financial income, infrastructure, population size, the status of football in society, the position of the national teams in the world rankings, and several other aspects.
And this model used by Klement has proven successful in the last three editions of the World Cup.
He has predicted that the Netherlands will defeat Spain in the semi-finals, before winning against Portugal in the final.
According to Clement, Portugal will eliminate England in the other semi-final.
While Clement has been accurate in the past, he warns others not to take his predictions seriously.
"This is irrational," he said. "It's like playing the lottery. I always say that no one should bet on my prediction of who will be the next world champion. It's like flipping a coin. You can predict that it will come up heads four times in a row, and it might happen. But that doesn't guarantee that it will happen again."
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The Netherlands holds the record for lost World Cup finals, three in total, but have never triumphed.
The Netherlands, led by Ronald Koeman, starts the World Cup on June 14 against Japan, while in Group F they will also face Sweden and Tunisia.
