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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a different winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to secure the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the hunt this term, but encounters tough rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games left to play, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

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

If the deadlock remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be split.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

The remainder of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Recipients

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been claimed 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 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six occasions during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three straight 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 first player to win the award while at an club in England was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

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

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

Now, the very three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently leading the pack.