🔗 Share this article

The competition for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a new winner in every one 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 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the running this campaign, but faces stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

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

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

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the award be shared.

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

At present, a three-horse race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

The remainder of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic legends.

Portuguese legend Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six occasions during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three successive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

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

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

Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 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 thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the very three players are competing at the top of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently out in front the pack.