The Chicago Cubs are celebrating a famous World Series triumph after 108 years of hurt, having beaten the Cleveland Indians to win Major League Baseball’s showcase trophy, but one fan saw the victory coming 23 years ago.

Michael Lee, a student at a school in Mission Viejo, California, back in the 1990s, chose his yearbook message to predict that the Cubs would win the World Series in 2016.

His hilarious yet bold prediction was dragged up earlier this week after the Cubs fought their way back into contention in the World Series, having been on the brink of defeat after going behind 3-1 through four matches.

A Twitter user by the name of Thomas j Dale posted a picture on social media last week to claim his mother had shown him her yearbook from 1993, in which Mr Lee makes the prediction. His caption added: “*mom walks into my room* - look at my yearbook from '93 #...This dude called the cubs winning the series in 2016 for his senior quote.”

The post immediately raised suggestions that the picture had been photoshopped to reflect the 2016 World Series, but this is not the case.

After Mr Dale posted the picture, a Reddit user by the name of number1makeitso claimed they had found four other copies of the same yearbook and uploaded pictures of Mr Lee’s prediction onto Imgur as evidence.

Still not convinced? Neither was social media, but one of Mr Lee’s classmates spoke to WGN TV to confirm the story and admit he had spoken with him in 2009 when they reconnected on Facebook to bring up the possibility of his prediction coming true.

Michael Lee's prediction that the Chicago Cubs would win the 2016 World Series (Marcos Meza)

“When [Lee and I] connected on Facebook in 2009 I sent him the photo and told him we were nearing 2016,” Marcos Meza said. “He posted the photo of his prediction on August 8th. After my Dodgers lost it was time for me to make this go viral and BeLEEve in the Cubs for 2016.”