The World Cup is now only weeks away and anyone who hasn’t yet placed their bets is in danger of missing out on the early value. One of the most popular bets in the World Cup Top Scorer Odds has been Cristiano Ronaldo but does he represent a good bet?

He’s certainly going to score goals. He scored 8 goals in 10 games in qualifying and he was one of the joint top scorers at Euro 2012. The latter is an important fact as it proves that in recent years Ronaldo has become a big game player when one of the main criticisms aimed at the forward earlier in his career was that he was sometimes outshined by others when it really mattered. Portugal may not win their group with Germany also placed in Group G but at the very least they should finish second which would most likely see them face Belgium in the Second Round. Belgium look a little overrated going into the World Cup. They may be a team full of greats but they haven’t proved themselves a great team yet and Portugal are capable of progressing to the Quarter Finals. However that would most likely see them face Argentina and in South America that would be a really difficult match to win.

If you fancy Portugal to win Group G then Ronaldo should definitely be backed to be the tournament’s top scorer at 14/1. In the Second Round Portugal would most likely avoid Belgium and face Russia instead whilst their Quarter Final match would be a more winnable game against France. If Portugal reach the Semi Final that guarantees them 7 games and gives them a huge advantage in producing the Golden Boot over teams that only reached the Quarter Final and can only play 5 games. Portugal would be unlikely winners of their Semi Final but if you’ve backed Ronaldo to be the top scorer that is a good thing, it means he’d play in the Third Place Playoff which is often the highest scoring game of the tournament.

Ronaldo’s chance of being named player of the tournament would also be compromised if Portugal don’t reach the Semi Finals. You need as many games as possible to show yourself off for this award and the winner is likely to be a player that helped his team at achieve something (semi final finish minimum normally). Ronaldo is 16/1 to win that honour and if Portugal aren’t to reach the Semi Final then he probably has a better chance of being the top goalscorer than the player of the tournament although if a player is capable of standing out in just five games it is certainly CR7.

So how far do the bookies think Portugal and Ronaldo can go in Brazil? Amazingly they think the Group Stage is the most likely stage of elimination with that outcome priced up at just 15/8. They are then 9/4 to go out in the Second Round, 4/1 to be knocked out in the Quarter Final, 9/1 in the Semis, 24/1 to be runners up and 33/1 to go all the way. They’ll certainly need Ronaldo to be in top form if they are to achieve