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

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this season, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches remaining, other players still have time to enter the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the leading scorer in league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced 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 Europe's five major leagues—the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1—are valued at two points apiece.

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

While the honor has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season states that in the event of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be split.

Who are the Primary Contenders?

At present, a three-way tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side RFS, who has scored 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 fixtures this term.

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised 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 won by some of football's biggest legends.

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate times during his 17-year tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for most goals in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 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 scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland scooped 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 same total for Bayern Munich the following year.

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

Now, the same three players are vying at the top of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.