Brazil nuts about names

SPORTS BETTING: 

THE World Cup finals will soon be upon us and, with the best footballers on the planet to entertain us, I can hardly wait.

But there is an intriguing side issue to football’s global tournament: Which player has the best name?

For a start, there is Spain’s Pedro, Chile’s Bravo and Carlo Costly of Honduras. And how about Lee Bum-young of South Korea?

England have Phil Jones in their ranks which shows our flair for names is about as great as it is for footballing talent. But this is an aspect of the World Cup that is dominated by Brazil.

The tournament favourites have two likely strikers in Jo and Bernard, but the pair whose names have me in stitches are Fred and Hulk.

Fred, aka Frederico Chavez Guedes, is a likely starter up front for Brazil and is only 22-1 to be the tournament’s top goal scorer.

Hulk - real name Givanildo Vieira de Souza, so you can see why it’s abbreviated - also plays in attack for the Pentacampeus (Five Time Champions), and he can be backed at 50-1. I bet his mates are green with envy.

I really do hope these guys have a good tournament because if England do as badly as I expect I will be in need of a laugh.

On a more serious note, Lionel Messi (Argentina) is 8-1 favourite to win the Golden Boot, with Neymar (Brazil) 12-1, Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) 14-1, Sergio Aguero (Argentina) 16-1 and Luis Suarez (Uruguay) 22-1.

Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge, who are expected to lead the line for the Three Lions, are

50-1 and 66-1 respectively.

As for the winning team, Brazil are 3-1, Argentina 5-1, Germany 6-1, reigning champions Spain 13-2 and it’s 20-1 bar. England are 28-1, but should be three times that price.

I hope I am proved completely wrong and will be looking at our chances and those of the other nations in this column on the eve of the tournament.