Who is Out in Front in the Contest for the Golden Shoe?

The battle for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a new winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to secure the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is back in the running this campaign, but encounters tough rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games left to play, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the top scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, 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 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 trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

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

Identifying the Leading Challengers?

At present, a three-horse race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 matches.

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

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

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

A Look at Past Recipients

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic names.

Portuguese icon Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his long tenure at FC 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 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd 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 Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

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

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

Now, the very three players are competing at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.