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

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

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the running this term, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be shared.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

At present, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners split 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth place is Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 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 term.

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

Reviewing Past Winners

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

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate times during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark for highest tally in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three successive 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 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 past three seasons.

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following year.

Kylian Mbappe is the current winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the very three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently out in front the pack.