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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its midway point.

With a new winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this season, but encounters tough competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to honor the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

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 carry one point.

While the honor has been shared on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie remains, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be shared.

Who are the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-horse tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners split by just a solitary 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

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

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

A Look at Previous Recipients

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

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

Messi set the record for highest tally in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

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

The award has seen a different winner in each of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland claimed the award 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 identical total for Bayern Munich the next year.

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 three players are competing at the top of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the pack.