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The competition for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season passes its halfway mark.

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

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this campaign, but encounters tough rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, 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 first launched in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the top goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's 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 honor has been shared on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the case of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be shared.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

Currently, 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 matches.
• 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 place is Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-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.

Reviewing Past Recipients

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six occasions during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an club in England was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland claimed the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned 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 three players are battling at the top of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane currently leading the way.