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

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to claim the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this term, but faces tough rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the highest goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this method, a player's tallies are weighted with a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's 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 several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be split.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

At present, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners separated by just a solitary 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

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

The rest of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Previous Recipients

Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's biggest names.

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six times during his 17-year spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a single season 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 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before proceeding 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 scored 32 goals for Liverpool.

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 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the same goal tally 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 same three players are battling at the top of the standings once more this season, with Kane presently out in front the way.