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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season approaches its midway point.

With a new winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to secure the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is back in the hunt this season, but faces stiff competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to recognize the highest 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 weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

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 all other European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on several occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be split.

Who are the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse tussle exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 matches.

In fourth place is Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has scored 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 fixtures this term.

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Winners

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

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most 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 date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd 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 FC.

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

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the following 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 summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.