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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to secure the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the running this campaign, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other talents still have time to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the top goalscorer in 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 method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

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

While the award has been shared on multiple occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the award be split.

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

Currently, a three-way race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga games.
• 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 side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for 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 operate on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Recipients

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate occasions during his 17-year spell at FC 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 straight 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 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 scored 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

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

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

Now, the very trio are battling at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently leading the pack.