Philippe Coutinho is set to win the World Cup Golden Boot, according to research from SmartBets, the customisable odds comparison site powered by bettingexpert.com, with the Brazilian forward matching the averages of all previous award winners.

After finding statistics from each of the Golden Boot winners since the first tournament in 1930, SmartBets crunched the numbers of all 736 players at the 2018 World Cup, to find one perfect match – Brazil’s Coutinho.

The Barcelona man ticks every box compared to the average – with the perfect age, height, weight, international experience and goals last season.

Coutinho, who will turn 26 next Tuesday, will be narrowly older than the average Golden Boot winner at 25.27 – while his height of 173cm and weight of 72kg also measure up next to the top scorers’ average of 177.22cm and 74.17kg.

The former Liverpool man has 35 caps and nine goals for Brazil, which are close to the Golden Boot pre-tournament averages of 30.46 international caps and 14.38 goals. Coutinho is also in form too, netting 15 league goals for the Reds and Barcelona in the season just gone – compared to the top scorers’ average of 17.71 just ahead of their respective World Cups.

Also with similar stats to the Golden Boot winners are Spain’s Isco, France’s Antoine Griezmann, Mexico’s Hirving Lozana, and two Premier League misfits in Croatia’s Andrej Kramaric and Tunisia’s Wahbi Khazri – though none of them boast numbers as close as Coutinho.

SmartBets credited each individual as matching the average if falling within; 2yrs (age), 5cm (height), 5kg (weight), 5 caps, 5 goals.