Whilst South Africa themselves are not a particularly strong proposition, one team that boasts a wealth of world class players is the Ivory Coast, with probably their most famous export being their captain, and star centre forward at Chelsea, Didier Drogba. If any player is going to win this accolade for Africa, Drogba could well be where the smart money is.
Bwin are offering 40-1, the longest odds at the time of writing, for Drogba as top goal scorer during the 2010 World Cup. The market varies widely for this bet, as with many picks for top goal scorer, with the shortest being 20-1 from Tote Sport. Most prices in between are around the 28-1 mark.
Drogba has won his fair share of accolades already, having been the African Footballer of the Year twice, in 2006 and 2009 and the Premiership’s top goal scorer in 2007.
With Chelsea, he has won both the Premiership and the FA Cup twice, though he is yet to secure any silverware with his Ivorian team.
The 32 year old player has scored 43 goals in 66 appearances for the Ivory Coast since 2002, and is the current captain.
There are some interesting bets to be had on the fate of African teams and players in the World Cup. The growth of football in Africa in the past decade, the impressive performances by African teams in recent competitions, and the number of famous names from European club sides playing for teams like the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon combined with the climate and support advantage of the host nation being in Africa are leading a lot of speculators to look to the continent for their tournament picks.
The best odds on an African team winning are currently 16-1 from Betfred. For comparison, the shortest odds on this eventuality are 9-1 from Expekt.com.
Betting on the top African team, inline with the overall win market, puts the Ivory Coast top, with most bookmakers putting this at around evens.
This is despite the fact the Ivory Coast are in a first round group with Brazil and Portugal. This is the second time in two World Cup tournaments they have been drawn in the “group of death”, and last time this happened in 2006 they didn’t actually make it past the group stages, in spite of high hopes going in to the competition.
A double bet on the Ivory Coast and Drogba is currently best priced at 250-1 from Blue Square or 888sport. William Hill’s offering for this bet is the lowest, at 150-1 at the time of writing.
