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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears its halfway mark.

With a new winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to win the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the mix this season, but encounters formidable rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the highest goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered 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 strength ranking of their domestic competition.

Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece.

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the award be shared.

Who are the Main Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way tussle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga matches.
• 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 matches.

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

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

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Previous Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's biggest legends.

Portuguese icon Eusébio 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 maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six times during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for most goals in a campaign with 50 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 claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

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

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

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

Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the same three players are battling at the top of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.