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The competition for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a new winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to win the award back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this campaign, but faces tough rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures left to play, 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 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 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 dictates that in the case of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 games.

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

Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.

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 Recipients

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

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.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the record for most goals in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three consecutive 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 on three further occasions 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 prize 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 thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the very three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.