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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season nears its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to win the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the hunt this campaign, but faces stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the leading scorer in league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

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

While the honor has been jointly won on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be shared.

Who are the Main Contenders?

At present, a three-way battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a single 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-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.

A Look at Past Recipients

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

Portuguese icon Eusebio claimed 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 legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate times during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi set the record for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times 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 prize has seen a new winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the following season.

Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner 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 leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.