Brazil legend Roberto Carlos picks Premier League player he's sure will become a World Cup hero in Russia 2018

Brazilian team having a chat with their coach Tite (C) during training. [Photo/Courtesy]

The World Cup is where stars become legends.

Think about Pele, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, the original Ronaldo: they all wrote their names in the history books by inspiring their countries to glory.

Who will join them this ­summer?

We know that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are ­desperate to win it, but I look at Brazil – my favourites, of course – and see two players who can really go to the next level in ­Russia.

The first one you can ­probably guess.

Watching Neymar’s brilliant goals against Croatia and ­Austria, I had one thought: this guy is going to explode at the World Cup.

He looks motivated and I ­predict we’re going to see fireworks over the next few weeks.

The injury lay-off will have helped him.

It was good for him physically, but also psychologically. He is now in the right mindset after a tough season with Paris Saint-Germain.

That can only be good for Brazil. Neymar is going to be ­marvellous in Russia and win the trophy for us. But you know who else is going to have a big World Cup? Willian.

Brazilian forward Willian. [Photo/Courtesy]

People talk about Messi, ­Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski and Neymar, but for me, Willian is right up there.

He’s in really good form and always takes ­responsibility on the pitch.

He’s a quiet guy who keeps to himself, but he’s going to surprise a lot of people this summer.

Willian is going to be the best player at the tournament, alongside Neymar.

He knows how important he is to this team and I want to see him start with a bang against ­Switzerland tonight.

There are always nerves before your opening game.

When I played, our first match was always ­fragmented, always tough – we only beat Scotland by one goal in 1998, ­remember, and it was a ­similar story in my next two World Cups. The good news is that everything becomes easier after that.

If you start with a victory, you go into the second game feeling calmer because you know that three more points will put you through.

Switzerland have good ­players, but I think we will win 1-0. In Brazil, we call that a ‘sweaty’ victory!

I liked what I saw from the Seleção in the warm-up friendlies.

Both the ­defence and the attack are really well coordinated and ­organised, and we scored some lovely goals.

But I expect nothing less from a team managed by Tite, a coach I got to know well during my time at Corinthians.

He is just a fantastic person.

Roberto Carlos won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 tournament. [Photo/Courtesy]

He tells it like it is, to your face. The players really respect him, and that feeling of unity is really important at a World Cup.

At the same time, Tite has a real desire for knowledge.

He came to Europe in 2014 to watch games and see how a few top clubs do things, and that helped him grow a lot.

Tite is the image of a modern coach.

People say Brazil, Germany and France have an even better chance after Spain’s issues, but I don’t see it like that.

Remember, the coach doesn’t play the matches.

Fernando Hierro, an old team-mate of mine, knows the set-up very well.

Spain are still one of the favourites – maybe even more so than before if they can pull together after these problems.

But I’m still backing ­Brazil!