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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.

With a different winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to secure the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this campaign, but encounters stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the top goalscorer in domestic 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 points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific coefficient 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 Ligue 1—are worth two points each.

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese league, 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 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 deadlock remains, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these criteria are used would the award be shared.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth 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 matches this term.

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Previous Recipients

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six occasions during his 17-year tenure at Barcelona.

Messi set 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 straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar 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 club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

The award 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 maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season.

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

Now, the very three players are competing at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane presently out in front the way.