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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.

With a new winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this campaign, but encounters stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the leading scorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

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

If the tie remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be shared.

Who are the Leading 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 (England 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

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

A Look at Previous Recipients

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic names.

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

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

Messi established the record for most goals in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 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 club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

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

Kylian Mbappe is the reigning 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 top of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently leading the way.