Three Lions can rule the world, just like in ‘66

IT is always a most memorable time for me when the World Cup comes around.

For looking back, it was huge in 1966, not just for Sir Alf Ramsey and the history-making team who actually won it, but for me too!

You see I went for a big gamble... and got Betfred off to a flyer.

I wagered £200, which was a significant bet in those days as it was around five times the weekly wage, on England to win the Jules Rimet trophy.

I got on at 8/1, thus picking up £1,600 which was around half the cost of my first shop which opened in Pendleton near my home in Salford in 1967.

We now have grown to a total of 1,419 shops in the UK, so I owe England’s national team big time!

And you know what? I believe we can go and win the World Cup again in Qatar.

Betfred has vowed we’ll be best price on the outright winner throughout the tournament, and consequently currently have England at 9/1 behind favourites Brazil (4/1), Argentina (11/2) and France (7/1).

Gareth Southgate has the players capable as this group has benefitted from playing with the elite in our multi-cultural Premier League that is the most competitive in world football.

We have nothing to fear from the teams in Group B and should walk that – and then it’s the knockout stages, and, again, we should be quite capable of going all the way.

Bring it on I say – even if the South Americans are not only a big threat but will be able to cope better with the Qatar heat.

We’ve had thousands of fans putting fivers and tenners on England and the two South American giants – including a massive £20,000 bet on Brazil at 9/2 in Southampton.

If not England then I’m reckoning the greatest challenge from Europe will be the French so long as they can show harmony within their superstar squad.

The biggest wager we’ve taken on England came from a customer in Nottingham, who put £2,000 on Gareth Southgate bringing football home.

One highly-popular double at Betfred is for Argentina to win the World Cup and Messi, who is probably playing his last tournament, to pick up the Golden Boot as top scorer – that’s 28/1 at Betfred.

The Golden Boot market is wide open and attracting a lot of interest, with our skipper Harry Kane the 7/1 favourite, Kylian Mbappe 8/1 and his French team-mate Karim Benzema at 10/1 followed by Lionel Messi at 12/1. And if you think Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo can get back to generating headlines of the right kind rather than carping on about United, well he’s 16/1 at Betfred to be top scorer and 20/1 to be the highlyunlikely player of the tournament.