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The battle for the European Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to win the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this campaign, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to celebrate the highest goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

Goals scored in the continent's five major leagues—the Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are worth two points each.

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

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

If the tie persists, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Primary Contenders?

At present, a three-horse tussle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single goal.

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

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

Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this season.

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

Reviewing Previous Recipients

Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's biggest stars.

Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

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

Messi set the benchmark for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

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

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

The prize has seen a different winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland scooped the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the next year.

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

Now, the very trio are competing at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently leading the way.