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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.

With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to secure the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this campaign, but faces tough competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to honor the leading scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA 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 multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

At present, a three-horse race is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• 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 RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

Dutch side Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this season.

The remainder of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Previous Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusebio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate occasions during his 17-year tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for most goals in a single season 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 with Man Utd before proceeding to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

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

The prize has seen a new winner in each of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland scooped 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 goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the very trio are competing at the summit of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane currently leading the pack.