Vanga, who died in 1996, was a Bulgarian mystic and clairvoyant who became a cult figure among conspiracy theorists after some of her chilling claims were confirmed, the Daily Mail recalls.
A blind clairvoyant – allegedly – predicted the events of September 11, 2001 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Well, the 2025 prophecy, which predicts that humans will come into contact with alien life this year, has been attempted by some to directly link it to the 2026 World Cup draw, scheduled to take place on Friday in Washington, DC. In particular, Vanga's vision, according to the Daily Mail, describes a UFO that will appear as a “new light in the sky” during this event, allowing humanity to meet aliens for the first time and bring answers to the world instead of fear.
Furthermore, it is predicted that this historic moment will take place during a major sporting event and people from all over the world will be able to see it, although Baba Vanga has never revealed at which sporting event it will take place, commented Daily Mail.
Vanga left no records of his predictions. Most reports come from her niece, Krasimira Stoyanova, or other followers who recorded images allegedly of her after her death and who have been repeatedly accused of misinterpreting her words.
During the roughly hour-long ceremony, all 48 qualifying teams were randomly assigned to 12 groups of four to determine exactly who will play who in the opening stages of next summer's tournament in stadiums across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
While Friday's selection ceremony wasn't technically an actual sporting event, it set the stage for one of the most-watched tournaments in the world, held every four years and watched by an estimated 1.5 to 5 billion people, the Daily Mail noted.
The British publication points out that the World Cup ceremony is likely to be the most-watched live televised event this month, giving the late Bulgarian fortuneteller one last chance to prove his case before the calendar turns to 2026.
Although the prediction for 2025 remains vague, interpreters of Baba Vanga's prophecy believe that the light clearly refers to an extraterrestrial spacecraft appearing above the sports complex.
Some social network users believe that Vanga's prediction has come true thanks to the passage of the mysterious interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, which will fly closest to Earth on December 19.
NASA and other astronomers have concluded that the object is a lifeless comet, but many in the public, including at least one prominent researcher, still believe that 3I/ATLAS may be an extraterrestrial spacecraft, the Daily Mail recalls.
It has also been suggested that the lights in Vanga's vision could refer to a meteor shower, the Northern Lights or the expected explosion of the supernova T Coronae Borealis Nova at a distance of 3,000 light years, visible from Earth.
Many believers in the prophecy thought this event would occur during the Super Bowl in February, one of the most watched television events each year, but this did not happen.
However, Vanga's reputation as a predictor of future events is comparable to Nostradamus' centuries-old reputation, the Daily Mail points out. She is credited with predicting the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea in 2000.
Baba Vanga also said that “two metal birds will collide with fellow Americans and blood will be shed,” which, according to some interpreters, accurately describes the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Other prophecies that have come true include the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and the rise of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in 2010, the Daily Mail writes.
Vanga even accurately predicted her own death when she said she would die on August 11, 1996, at the age of 85.
