FIFA World Cup Golden Glove Betting Odds
Brazil’s Alisson the Current Favorite
Odds for the Eight-Man Field
We’ve seen some excellent goalkeeping performances at the FIFA World Cup so far, especially in the round of 16. Croatia’s Dominik Livakovic and Morocco’s Yassine Bounou were heroic in their teams’ respective penalty shootout wins. They’re now contenders for the Golden Glove Award, given to the tournament’s best goalkeeper. All eight remaining goalies show shorter than +2000 odds to take home the trophy, which makes this a tight field. We’ll take a look at the Golden Glove betting odds and run through all the remaining shot stoppers’ chances.
Note on the Golden Glove
The Golden Glove isn’t as simple as the Golden Boot, where the player with the most goals wins. The goalkeeper with the highest save percentage or most shutouts doesn’t automatically win the award. Instead, the FIFA Technical Study Group determines who the best GK is based on their cumulative performance at the tournament. Originally named the Lev Yashin Award, FIFA has only awarded the Golden Glove since 1994.
In 2006, 2010 and 2014 the goalkeepers on the World Cup-winning team took home the award. Belgium’s Thibaut Courtois broke that streak in 2018 as he won the award while Belgium finished in third place. Michel Preud’homme is the only goalkeeper to ever win the Golden Glove when his team didn’t reach the semifinals. His Belgium only made it to the round of 16 in 1994.
Frontrunners:
Alisson made some ridiculous saves in Brazil’s 4-1 win over South Korea in the round of 16. Brazil are favorites to win the tournament, at +170 FIFA World Cup betting odds, and he’s the favorite to win the Golden Glove. The Liverpool shot stopper sits at +185 odds to become the first Brazilian keeper to win the award. He has already kept shutouts vs. both Switzerland and Serbia and has another opportunity vs. Croatia on Friday. Alisson already has two Premier League Golden Gloves and a Champions League title. He’s one of the best keepers in the world and would be adding to an extensive trophy case if he wins the Golden Glove.
Argentina goalkeeper Emi Martinez is relatively new to the international soccer scene. He only made his debut for Argentina in 2021 but was instrumental in last Summer’s Copa America title. Now, the Aston Villa keeper shows +350 Golden Glove betting odds. However, he currently has the lowest number of saves of any remaining keeper. That’s more a function of the defense in front of him being solid than any fault of his own. He’s faced just four shots on target during the tournament and made two saves. Australia’s freak goal in the round of 16 doesn’t officially count as a shot on target because of the deflection it took.
Contenders:
France’s Hugo Lloris equalled the French record for international appearances last Sunday. He made his 142nd appearance in the 3-1 win vs. Poland and will break the record vs. England on Saturday. He could also become the first man to captain a country to two World Cup wins. Despite all of his accolades, mistakes seem to be beginning to creep into the 35-year old’s game. He’s yet to keep a shutout during the tournament but stands at +700 World Cup 2022 Golden Glove to win the Golden Glove.
While Lloris doesn’t have a clean sheet, his counterpart on Saturday, Jordan Pickford, has already kept three. England haven’t conceded since their opening 6-2 win to Iran and Pickford made a great one handed stop in the 3-0 round of 16 win vs. Senegal. The Everton goalie is also priced at +700 odds to win the Golden Glove. It’ll very likely take England to at least make the semifinals for him to pull it off, though. That’s something that’ll be a challenge, as they’re underdogs for Saturday’s match.
Dark Horses:
Portugal’s Diogo Costa is our first dark horse candidate, at +1200 odds to win the Golden Glove. The 23-year old recently won the starting job over Rui Patricio and has been in goal for all four matches so far. He nearly made an incredibly costly error in Portugal’s opening 3-2 win vs. Ghana by failing to notice Inaki Williams lurking behind him. Williams stole the ball but bailed Costa out by slipping on his shot. He made up for it with a great performance vs. Uruguay but has conceded five times in the tournament so far.
Yassine Bounou is the biggest recent positive mover on the odds board. The Sevilla and Morocco keeper, nicknamed Bono, came into the round of 16 at +2000 odds to win the Golden Glove. Then, he kept a shutout vs. Spain and saved two penalties in a heroic effort. With the 3-0 shootout win, Morocco advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in team history. He now comes into the quarterfinals showdown with Portugal at +1200 odds. If he and Morocco can continue their magical run, he certainly has more than a fair shot.
Longshots:
There was a lot of pressure on Andries Noppert coming into the World Cup but he’s handled it very well. He made his Netherlands debut during their first match vs. Senegal and had an excellent match. The Oranje won 2-0 and Noppert came through with four saves in the shutout. Through the round of 16, Noppert has made 15 saves, more than any other keeper left.
It’s somewhat surprising that he shows just +1600 odds. However, he and the Netherlands take on a powerhouse Argentina side in the quarterfinals.
One might think Dominik Livakovic would be among the leading candidates after saving three penalties vs. Japan. However, Croatia are widely expected to lose to Brazil on Friday and that would sink his chances. He could still be a value bet, as he’s only conceded two goals thus far. The Dinamo Zagreb goalkeeper currently sits at +1600 Golden Glove betting odds. A big performance and win vs. Brazil would massively shorten his odds.
