Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar Have Top World Cup Golden Boot Odds

The three superstars are pegged to score the most goals at the World Cup, though they're followed by a series of top contenders.

In all but one of the 10 World Cup tournaments played since 1978, six goals have been enough to claim the award for the tournament's top goal scorer. The award has been called the Golden Boot since the start of the 2010 World Cup, and the top goal scorers in the world will be out to claim the top spot in 2018.

Argentina's Lionel Messi is the betting favorite on the odds to win the Golden Boot, going off at +850 at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Messi is one of the most prolific goal scorers in the world, finishing the 2017-18 season with the most goals in La Liga with 34. This marked the second straight year and the fifth time in Messi's career that the Argentinian star finished with the most goals in both La Liga and all of Europe's top leagues.

Cristiano Ronaldo (+1200 to win the Golden Boot) is a three-time winner of the La Liga scoring title as well as the European Golden Shoe. Portugal's status as a fringe contender makes it less likely that Ronaldo will have the chance to go deep in this tournament, but even in limited caps the superstar should be considered a major threat to win the award.

Neymar (+900) finished in third place in the race for the Golden Boot in the 2014 World Cup with four goals–and that's with suffering a broken back bone in the quarterfinals. Brazil has an excellent chance at advancing to the final in 2018, giving Neymar plenty of opportunities to net a few extra goals and come out on top of the leaderboard.

There may be some major value in Timo Werner (+1600) or Thomas Muller (+2500) of Germany. The two splitting goals may be a concern, but Germany tends to score so many in the World Cup that it may not matter. A German player has won two of the last four Golden Boot awards and finished runner up the other two years. Muller, who has five goals in each of the last two World Cups, is the more established player of the two, but Werner is a pure striker with major breakout potential.

Other Golden Boot contenders at the 2018 World Cup include Antoine Griezmann (+1400), Harry Kane (+1600), Gabriel Jesus (+1600), Romelu Lukaku (+2000), Luis Suarez (+2500), Edinson Cavani (+2500), Robert Lewandowski (+2500) and Sergio Aguero (+2500).