World Cup Winner: Who Will Win the World Cup?

We kick off our look at the World Cup favourites with exactly that, the World Cup favourite. At 5/1 – and shorter than that with most bookies – that tag belongs to Spain. The Spanish are a fairly obvious pick, given their pedigree and the fact they won the most recent European Championships, but we are dubious of the value on offer.

There is not a single player from Real Madrid named in their squad. We’re not bothered by that as a soundbite but the context of it is important. It means Dani Carvajal is missing, with right back a potential chink in their armour, whilst the absence of a proven number nine and fitness question marks over the impressive duo of Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal are notable too.

Even if they have the ability to go all the way, we’d question whether the odds represent a smart pick.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 2022’s beaten finalists France feature high up in the bookies list of favourites to win the World Cup. They could have been given an easier group to navigate, with Senegal and Norway both serious banana-skins to navigate but you have to fancy France to progress – especially given the format of the group stage.

When it then comes to the knockout games, France will fancy their chances against anyone. And we mean anyone. You can probably ask questions about them between the sticks but, beyond that, Didier Deschamps squad is stacked.

Attention will pour to the forwards with Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe just three names worth calling out, but they are strong at the back too. They will take some stopping.

“Football’s coming home” is going to be doing the rounds again very, very soon. Given the odds on offer, the bookies think it might be coming home too. Do we? It’s not where we’d put our money but, it depends how you look at things.

Many will point to the names that did not make Thomas Tuchel’s squad with Cole Palmer and Phil Foden amongst them. We’d suggest Tuchel has done what people have been crying out for – not picking a squad based on the names on the shirt. Will that be enough?

With Jordan Pickford, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane there is a decent spine of an XI. The defence is a concern, though, and the saying goes “defences win tournaments”.

The dark horse is always a betting approach that garners plenty of attention when World Cup betting opens. This year, Norway seem to be the pick that everyone is leaning towards. It is understandable. They’ve got star power in Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, to name just two.

Our pick, however, is Morocco. At 66/1, we think they offer enormous value. Like Norway, also have big names in their squad - Achraf Hakimi anyone – but have also showcased their quality on the world stage already. Morocco reached the semi-finals in Qatar, are the reigning Champions of AFCON, albeit controversially, and haven’t lost a game inside 90 minutes in 27 outings.

Oh, and their manager, Mohamed Ouahbi, guided their under 20 side to World Cup glory just last year.