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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season passes its midway point.

With a different winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this season, but faces tough rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other players still have time to enter the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the highest goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd 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 honor has been jointly won on several instances 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 persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Primary Contenders?

As it stands, a three-horse race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga games.
• 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 matches.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 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 rest of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's most iconic legends.

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

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

Messi established the record for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before going on 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 netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

The prize 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 same goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year.

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 competing at the top of the standings once more this season, with Kane presently leading the pack.