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

With a different winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to claim the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this campaign, but faces tough competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games left to play, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the highest goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

For leagues 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 all other European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Leading Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga games.
• 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 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 fixtures this term.

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Past Winners

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

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six times during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before going on to win it three more times 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 scored 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following 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 same three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.