Despite coming up just short of winning the World Cup in 2014 with a loss in the final to Germany, Lionel Messi left the tournament as the winner of the Adidas Golden Ball, awarded to the World Cup MVP. Messi will try to win the award again in 2018, but this time hopes it comes along with a 2018 World Cup victory for Argentina.
World Cup 2018 prop bets: Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo headline odds on tournament board
Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Cristiano Ronaldo will try to win the World Cup’s prestigious awards this summer, with the sportsbooks setting them among the betting favorites.
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Lionel Messi is going off at +800 on the odds to win the Golden Ball and +850 on the Golden Boot odds as the tournament’s top goal scorer at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Widely considered to be the best player in the world, Messi is coming off another brilliant year at the club level leading Barcelona to a La Liga title with 34 goals in 36 games. Even though Argentina is the fifth favorite on the board to win the 2018 World Cup at +1000, Messi is still the favorite in both prop bets on the tournament’s individual hardware.
Messi’s former Barcelona teammate Neymar had an injury-plagued season in 2017-18 but still managed to score 19 goals in 20 appearances for Paris Saint-Germain. The 26-year-old Brazilian is back in top form now and looks primed to do plenty of damage in Russia.
Neymar is going off at +900 to win the Golden Boot on the World Cup betting lines and +900 to win the Golden Ball. Brazil is one of the tournament’s top favorites at +450 behind only Germany at +400.
Other major threats to win the Golden Ball and Golden Boot are Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (+1200 to win the Golden Boot and +1400 to win the Golden Ball) and France’s Antoine Griezmann (+1400 to win the Golden Boot and +1800 to win the Golden Ball).
Portugal is even further down the board than Argentina at +2200 to win the World Cup, but Ronaldo is the best pure goal scorer in the world and could rack up a ton of goals even in limited caps.
Bettors who believe a brilliant individual performance could lead that player’s national team to a championship might consider taking a shot on winner and top goalscorer doubles on the 2018 World Cup props.
Popular choices may include Neymar as top goal scorer and Brazil winning the World Cup at +2000, Lionel Messi/Argentina (+2800), Timo Werner/Germany (+3300), and Antoine Greizmann/France (+4000).
For more odds information, betting picks, and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.
