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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the 2025-26 season passes its halfway mark.

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

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this season, but encounters formidable rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the highest goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

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 season dictates that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the award be shared.

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

Currently, a three-way 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 matches.
• 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 games.

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

Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season.

The remainder of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two 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 times during his 17-year tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for highest tally in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the 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 proceeding to win it three more times 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 new 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 total for Bayern Munich the next season.

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

Now, the same trio are vying at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane presently out in front the pack.