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The contest for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this term, but encounters stiff competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other players still have time to enter the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted points system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a specific multiplier 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 Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece.

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, 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 several occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be shared.

Who are the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse race is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners separated by just a single 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 matches.

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

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

The rest of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Winners

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic names.

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

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

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United 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 scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the next year.

Kylian Mbappe is the current 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 summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane presently leading the pack.