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

With a different winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Premier League 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 back in the hunt this campaign, but faces formidable rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

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

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

Goals scored in the continent's five major leagues—the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points each.

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked 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 case 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 league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Main Contenders?

As it stands, a three-horse race is underway for the 2025-26 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 matches.
• 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 games.

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

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

The remainder of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two 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 most Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six occasions during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark for most goals in a single season with 50 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 claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before going on 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 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a different winner in every one of the last three seasons.

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

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

Now, the same three players are vying at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane presently leading the way.