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The battle for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season nears its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to claim the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this campaign, but encounters formidable rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches remaining, other players still have time to enter the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

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

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

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

If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be shared.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

As it stands, a three-horse race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three previous 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

Dutch side Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-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 Past Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate occasions during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

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

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

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

Erling Haaland scooped the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the following year.

Kylian Mbappe is the current holder 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 again this season, with Kane currently out in front the pack.