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

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

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this campaign, but faces stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

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

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

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

If the tie remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Main Contenders?

Currently, a three-way race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• Erling Haaland also has 19 goals (38 points) from 17 Premier League appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this term.

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

Reviewing Previous Recipients

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

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

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

Messi set the record for highest tally in a single season 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 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season 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 club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a different winner in each of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 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 winner of the award after scoring thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the very three players are competing at the top of the standings again this campaign, with Kane presently leading the way.