With last weekend’s Champions League final putting an end to the domestic action for another year, all eyes now turn towards Brazil for the World Cup and with only a couple of weeks until the football extravaganza begins on June 12, football fans will be thinking about their bets for the tournament and whilst the “who will win the World Cup” market is always the most popular, there’s a whole plethora of special markers for people to get stuck into prior to the big kick-off.
One popular bet is to have a flutter on the top scorer of the tournament and unsurprisingly, it’s the diminutive Argentinean Lionel Messi who is spearheading the betting to bag the most goals and the Barcelona hitman is a best-priced 8/1 to land the golden boot come the conclusion on July 13th but is that too short in a wide open field?
Housed in a group with Nigeria, Iran and Bosnia, the Argentineans are red-hot favourites to progress with maximum points and the 26-year-old talisman is sure to be at the forefront at the attacking flair shown by the South Americans, but he hasn’t been at his electrifying best this season for club and country and whilst he has hardly become an inferior player in the last few months the 8/1 is rather skinny and the 16/1 about Sergio Aguero and 20/1 about Gonzalo Higuain could offer a lot better value in what is a star-studded three-pronged attack from a strong Argentina outfit.
Many believe that the South American nations could dominate this year’s event and Brazil currently head the betting at 3/1 to win on home soil and they will have an embarrassment of riches within their ranks and Messi’s Barcelona teammate, Neymar, is the 12/1 second favourite to clinch the golden boot.
However, like Messi, Neymar is sometimes the lauded one within his side, so yet again there could be more value within his teammates and the classy Fred could offer a better punting opportunity at 22/1 with Sky Bet, whilst Hulk is available at 50/1 and has shown on occasions that he can sparkle on the big stage and could be another with each-way potential.
Cristiano Ronaldo notched in Real Madrid’s extra-time victory in the Champions League over rivals Atletico Madrid at the weekend, but whilst the free-scoring Portuguese star has a phenomenal scoring record for club and country it’s tough to see Portugal progressing far enough through the competition and the 14/1 about the Ballon D’Or winner is too short.
Whilst all the talk has been about the likes of Brazil and Argentina, one nation who could exceed expectations are France, who have gradually turned things around in recent years after some abhorrent displays on the big stage. Drawn in one of the easiest groups of the event on paper with matches against Honduras, Ecuador and Switzerland, the French could ease through with aplomb and Real hotshot Karim Benzema could be over-priced at 33/1 and should be backed each-way with Bet Victor.
Luis Suarez’s fitness will be under scrutiny as we get nearer the start of the competition and he’s unbackable at this present time at 22/1, whilst the Germans and English don’t appear to have a genuine out-and-out goalscorer to trouble the leading contenders, whilst the likes of Romelu Lukaku of Belgium and Mario Balotelli of Italy maybe another duo who aren’t in the competition in the latter rounds to fight it out for scoring supremacy.
