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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a different winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to win the award back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this campaign, but encounters stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other talents still have time to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to honor the leading scorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, 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 award has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be shared.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

Currently, a three-horse tussle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth 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 forward 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 operate on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Past Recipients

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

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.

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

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

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season 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 English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

The prize has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons.

Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season.

Kylian Mbappe is the reigning holder of the award after scoring 31 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 leading the way.