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

With a different winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to win the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is back in the hunt this term, but encounters stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient 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 valued at two points apiece.

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese league, 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 occasions in the past, a regulation update 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 tie persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of league assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the prize be split.

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

At present, a three-way battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 Latvian club RFS, who has scored 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 fixtures this season.

The rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Previous Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six occasions during his 17-year tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for highest tally 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 successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before proceeding to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

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

The award has seen a new winner in every one of the past 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 maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the same three players are vying at the top of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.