John Barnes’ World Cup Predictions: Mbappe to lead France to third title?

Former England legend John Barnes has joined the Betfred team as our official World Cup Ambassador throughout the tournament. He’ll provide us with his views and insight on all things England as well as on anything and everything going on in the world of football over the next two months.

He spoke to our team ahead of the tournament this week and gave us his World Cup Predictions.

*Remember you can choose your own predictions and check out all the live World Cup Odds on our betting markets over on betfred.com.

We sat down with 'Barnesy' and to start with we asked him the all-important question. Who will win the World Cup in North America this summer?

France to win the World Cup @ 5/1

The 62-year-old former England star has Les Bleus at the top of his outright predictions, above the likes of Spain and England and gave us his thoughts why:

"Like in previous tournaments, England can go deep into it. Depending on how the group stages go, which are usually sorted in a way for the big boys to go through, they could end up with a team like France in the quarter or semi-finals and lose, but they can also win.

"Gareth Southgate maximised their potential and got us to quarter-finals, semi-finals and final and that’s where I think we’ll get, but for me to say that I think we’ll win it is unrealistic.

"For me, France are the strongest team and favourites and Spain and England will be just behind them, so we’ve got a great chance but to then expect them to win it and say that if they don’t win it’s a failure, is wrong."

John Barnes

Kylian Mbappe Top Goalscorer @ 11/2

John also picked out Kylian Mbappe as the chief threat for two-time winners France and selected the Real Madrid hitman as his predicted Top Goalscorer pick.

The 27-year-old has 56 goals for France in 98 appearances and will be presented with plenty of chances by the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola.

The French Captain has also had another prolific campaign at domestic and European level, with 44 goals from 48 appearances across all competitions.

Lamine Yamal Golden Ball @ 8/1

However, it's another La Liga star that Barnes picked out as his stand out player of the tournament, selecting Barcelona's Lamine Yamal as his FIFA Golden Ball winner.

The 18-year-old has already broken numerous records in his short career, being the youngest goalscorer in a European Championship at just 16, the youngest finalist at 17 and this year was the runner up in the Ballon d'Or vote for best player in Europe.

The Spanish star is ridiculously skilful and Barnes perhaps sees some elements of his own game in the Barca prodigy.

Jordan Pickford Golden Glove @ 7/1

And lastly our Betfred World Cup Ambassador selected Everton and England stopper Jordan Pickford as his Golden Glove winner, awarded to the best goalkeeper at the finals.

The 32-year-old has firmly established himself as the Three Lions number one over the last few years and a deep run by Thomas Tuchel's men would go a long way to securing the individual award for Pickford.