World Cup 2010 - Top Goalscorer Betting

The race for the Golden Boot is heating up and Gonzalo Higuain has been made slight favourite to land the award, at 3/1 (bet £10 to in £30 profit) with most bookmakers. The Argentine striker`s hat-trick against South Korea has him sitting atop the scoring charts but he will face strong competition from the likes of Luis Fabiano and David Villa.

Higuain had an excellent season with Real Madrid in La Liga, with only Lionel Messi besting his total of 27 goals, scored from only 28 starts. He will face competition for both goals and minutes on the pitch from Messi, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and Diego Milito, but at Real Madrid he has been forced to share with Ronaldo and Raul and has more than held his own.

David Villa is next in the betting at 4/1 with Ladbrokes and Bodog. He has always been an outstanding goalscorer for both club and country, hitting 39 goals in 59 caps for Spain. That kind of form has earned him a €40 million move to Barcelona this summer and he will be hard to overlook for the Golden Boot after starting the tournament well, scoring twice in his side`s 2-0 win over Honduras.

If David Villa is Spain`s main goalscorer, Luis Fabiano plays that role for five-time winners Brazil. The Sevilla man has 27 goals in 39 caps and is level with David Villa on two goals so far. One benefit enjoyed by Villa is that he is his side`s penalty taker, but that could change after his miss against Honduras and the 5/1 offered by Paddy Power looks fair value on Fabiano.

Lionel Messi needs no introduction but while he has taken the most shots of any player at the tournament so far, he is yet to find the net. Although he has a lot of catching up to do to win the Golden Boot, he has shown that he can score three or four in any game and at 25/1 with Paddy Power represents excellent value as an each-way bet.

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World Cup winner betting odds

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