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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season passes its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the prize remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to win the award back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this term, but faces stiff competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games left to play, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the France-based publication L'Equipe to recognize the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

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

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

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

Who are the Leading Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a single 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth place is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across their 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 rest of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

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

Messi set the benchmark for highest tally 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 superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an club in England was Liverpool's 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 award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the next 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 same three players are vying at the summit of the standings again this season, with Kane currently leading the way.