English managers back Messi as World Cup star

English Premier League managers have backed Lionel Messi to be the star of Africa’s first World Cup.

A survey of the English top flight bosses found that four out of five of them (83 percent) expect the Argentina star to be the player of the tournament.

Over half (53 percent) expect Brazil to win the trophy for the sixth time with only 24 percent backing European champions Spain.

Fernando Torres is seen as the EPL player most likely to star in South Africa with 47 per cent of the managers backing the Liverpool and Spain striker to be the top scorer, ahead of Wayne Rooney (41 percent) and Carlos Tevez (12 percent).

The survey was completed by 17 of the 20 Premier League managers and was carried out by Barclays, the sponsors of the EPL and the League Managers’ Association.