Who Will Be Top Scorer at Euro 2008?
The Golden Boot is awarded to the player who scores the most goals in the tournament and this is a great bet for recreational punters who can have an interest in more than one match for a small outlay.
This sort of bet can result can be very profitable if you choose the winner as the odds on individual player’s can be quite high and many backers will choose more than one player to bet one in the hope of a good return.
It makes sense to choose a player in a team who you expect to reach the Semi-Final or Final as they will play more games and will have a greater chance of scoring more goals. It’s also worth looking at any group that includes weaker teams Group B for instance has Austria who look the weakest side in the competition it could pay to choose a player from another team in this group in the hope they can bag a few goals against the Austrians.
It’s also worth considering the tactics a team employs. An attacking side are going to create more chances and are likely to score a few goals and have more chance of producing a Golden Boot winner than a team who are going to win their matches 1-0.
Players who take free-kicks and penalties have to be considered as likely winners too as a couple of goals from set pieces could go a long way towards reaching the five or six goals that will probably be enough to win the prize of top scorer.
We’ve listed below a few players who we think have a good chance of getting among the goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been scoring for fun for his club Manchester United this season and with 20 goals in 54 matches for Portugal his strike rate at International level is pretty good too. He is among the favourites to win the Golden Boot and at 10/1 (PaddyPower) has to be worth seriously considering.
Germany look likely to at least reach the Semi-Final stages and in Miroslav Klose they have a genuine goalscoring threat. In the last World Cup he scored five goals which all came from headers. He is excellent in the air and could score a few goals especially against group minnows Austria. Well worth a bet at 10/1 (VCBet) Michael Ballack at 40/1 (Bet365) is also worth a small stake given his big price.
Spain’s Fernando Torres 9/1 (Bet365) has been in good goal scoring form at club level but he only scored two goals during the qualifying campaign and a better bet for Spain could be team mate David Villa 18/1 (Betfair). He scored 8 goals in qualifying games and has cored 13 goals in 29 matches for Spain and looks better value than Torres.
Italy and France could both go a long way in the tournament, but given how tough their group is goals could be in short supply. The main threat for Italy is probably Luca Toni 12/1 (Bodog) but it’s doubtful if he can score enough goals to win the Golden Boot. The best bet for France could be David Trezeguet 33/1 (Partybets) but he doesn’t always feature in the starting line-up these days and better options are available elsewhere.
Other players at bigger prices who could have a chance of being top goalscorer are:
Jan Koller –Czech Republic 50/1 (Bodog)
Henrik Larsson-Sweden 80/1 (Partybets)
Nuno Gomez –Portugal 40/1 (PaddyPower)
Mladen Petric- Croatia 41/1 (Betfair)
Maciej Zurawski –Poland 200/1 (Partybets)
Albero Gilardino –Italy 50/1 (Partybets)
We’ll be having a little bet on Jan Koller and David Villa to hopefully land us a good return.