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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the current season passes its halfway mark.

With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to claim the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this campaign, but encounters formidable rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games left to play, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor 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 method, a player's goals are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

Currently, a three-way tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth place is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side RFS, who has netted 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 fixtures this term.

The rest of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Past Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six occasions during his 17-year tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a campaign with 50 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 first won award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before proceeding to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

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

The award has seen a different winner in every one 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 current winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the same trio are vying at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.