World Cup 2018 – Golden Boot
With World Cup approaching, we will take a look at who will be the player that will come out on top of goalscoring table and receive the Golden Boot.
While the World Cup began back in 1930, Golden Boot award was implemented 52 years after, back in 1982. At first, it was named Golden Shoe but was renamed into Golden Boot in 2010. Up until now, we have seen 9 players receiving this award and those were as follows: Paolo Rossi, Gary Lineker, Salvatore Schillaci, Oleg Salenko/Hristo Stoichov, Davor Suker, Ronaldo, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Muller and most recent James Rodriguez.
There is undoubtfully a correlation between winners of Golden Boot and the final result of their country. Which is, of course, understandable, “deeper” into competition the team goes more goalscoring opportunities each player gets. There are occasions this does not prove to be true. Back in 1994, when Oleg Salenko won the Golden Boot, despite his country not managing to come out of the group stage, however, Salenko scored 5 goals against Cameron, which set him for 6 total goals. That proves that before we pick our predictions, we need to take a look at the groups, as it could, in the end, be the decisive factor.
Lionel Messi
Of course, we would include him in this list. He is without the doubt one of the best players we have seen in a while. I have seen plenty of people saying his “golden era” will come to an end once he gets older, but he has shown over and over again he is still in form and more than capable of great performances. It’s without saying he is a favourite to win the Golden Boot award as he has outperformed all expectations in this, as well as last season. With 5 Baloon’dOr’s he will want to add the Golden Boot to his cabinet of awards and this just might be his last chance to do so, as once the next world cup will take place, Messi will already be 34 years old.
Christiano Ronaldo
When we talk about Messi, there is rarely an occasion Ronaldo is not mentioned and compared to him and rightfully so as they are considered 2 of the best of their time. Despite that, Rolando simply does not shine in international games like he does with Real Madrid. Another concern here is how far will Portugal go? They did win the Euro 2016, but to be fair they did not show any spectacular performances doing so. In that regard, Ronaldo is one of the favourites, but not in my eyes.
Neymar
There have been a lot of talks about this young Brazilian, especially after his record move from Barcelona to PSG. PSG put a lot of hopes into him to lead them to the Champions League title, and despite that not happening, Neymar’s performances this season were incredible. The only concern I have with him is his injury. He might be ready to play, but can we expect him to shine? It will all come down to how the injury affected him and if he will be fully ready for the World Cup. With Coutinho and Gabriel Jesus by his side, I see him having a lot of opportunities to grab the award IF of course his injury does not come in the way.
Antonie Griezman
Antonie Griezman, winner of Golden Boot in 2016 Euros will look for the missing shoe in Russia. WIth a team like France, Griezman can expect to go a long way in this tournament, which as said before will offer plenty of goalscoring opportunities. Looking at their World Cup group I don’t see them struggling, even more, I expect their dominance against each opponent. Both Australia and Peru do not have the defence to match France attack which only adds value to this bet.
Timo Werner
He has been playing exceptionally well this season. This young star scored 21 goals in 28 Bundesliga games for RB Leipzig which brought a lot of attention of big clubs to him, and rightfully so. Despite the fact, his team was not able to constantly feed him the ball he still achieved an exceptional goalscoring record. Now with his international squad, it will change. With Ozil, Kross and Muller behind him, we can be sure he will get plenty of good passes towards the goal and I expect him to do what he knows best; score goals.
Romelu Lukaku
The Belgian team is considered very strong with their young talents and to be fair Lukaku is one of the best offensive players as of now. He has shown his worth at Manchester United, despite playing a bit worse compared to the start of the season. But you can be sure, if Belgian team gets hot and proceeds deeper into the competition we will see Lukaku with plenty of goals to lead his team to the glory.
Edison Cavani
As mentioned before, looking at the teams in groups can have an effect on total goals scored. That comes into account for Uruguay. WIth Egypt, Russia, and Saudi Arabia in their group, we can expect a total dominance from this South American team. Cavani has proven his worth at PSG, where he had to step in and replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic. With over 20 goals for the second season in a row, it’s clear Cavani is hungry for goals and his hunger will only grow when he represents his country at the World Cup. Statistically, Cavani scores a goal every 90 minutes. You can do the match but simply putting it, if Uruguay manages to advance further than top 16 Cavani can be a serious competitor for the Golden Boot.
Harry Kane
He has already won English Premiership Golden Boot for 2 seasons and will seek to get the World Cup Golden Boot award. He is a well-respected attacker, finding the net time and time again for his team as well as his country. There is no denying he can score if given an opportunity and with Tunisia and Panama in the group, you can be sure there will be plenty of them. The biggest concern here is.. England. They will most likely advance into the next stage, but what then? However, Kane can rack up a few goals solely in the group stage so this bet is not as bad as it looks on the paper.
Mohamed Salah
I hope you didn’t think we will leave out Salah out of our list. With his 23 goals in 27 appearances for Liverpool, he could be doing much worse than he is. He is in an incredible form and a much-desired striker by any club in the world. Yes, he does play for Egypt who are not nearly good enough to contest top spots, but we can be sure all their attack will run through him. In other words, he will do most (if not all) the scoring. In addition, if Salah can continue with his form, Egypt does have a great opportunity to advance from the group. Saudi Arabia is not nearly as good as them and Russia can be beaten. Betting on him is a long shot but nonetheless not a bad pick.
Predictions
Antoine Griezmann(France) – 1 Unit Each Way(4 places) – 13.00 Bet365
Timo Werner(Germany) – 1 Unit Each Way(4 places) – 17.00 Bet365
Harry Kane(England) – 1 Unit Each Way(4 places) – 17.00 Bet365
Romelu Lukaku(Belgium) – 1 Unit Each Way(4 places) – 21.00 Bet365
FIFA World Cup 2018 – Article with all links to the previews and predictions
