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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the current season nears its midway point.

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

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this campaign, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the top scorer in 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 coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been shared on several instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be split.

Who are the Leading Contenders?

Currently, a three-way race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

Feyenoord striker 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 January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 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, claiming the honor on six separate occasions during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark 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 successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 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 English club was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland claimed 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 same goal tally for Bayern Munich the next 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 standings once more this season, with Kane presently out in front the way.