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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season nears its halfway mark.

With a new winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to secure the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this term, but encounters stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures left to play, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the leading goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.

Goals scored in Europe's top five leagues—the Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points each.

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been shared on several instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season states that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be split.

Who are the Main Contenders?

At present, a three-horse battle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• Erling Haaland also has 19 goals (38 points) from 17 Premier League appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this term.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Previous Recipients

Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic names.

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate occasions during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark for highest tally in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before going on to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

The prize has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons.

Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

Kylian Mbappe is the current holder of the award after scoring thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the same trio are competing at the top of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.