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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the current season passes its mid-season juncture.

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

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this campaign, but encounters stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

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

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the award has been jointly won on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the prize be split.

Who are the Primary Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse race is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Recipients

Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's most iconic legends.

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

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

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

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before going on to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

The prize has seen a different 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-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following 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 very trio are vying at the top of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.