Who's Leading in the Contest for the Golden Shoe?

The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.

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

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the running this term, but encounters stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's goals are weighted with a specific coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

Goals scored in Europe's five major leagues—the English Premier League, 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 league, 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 rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these criteria are used would the award be split.

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

Currently, a three-horse battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

The rest of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

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

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate times during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

The first player to win the award while at an English club 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 every one of the last three seasons.

Erling Haaland won the prize 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 same goal tally 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 top of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the pack.