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The competition for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season approaches its midway point.

With a new winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to secure the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this season, but faces stiff competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

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

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, 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 jointly won on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the award be split.

Who are the Leading Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this season.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic legends.

Portuguese legend Eusebio 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 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six times during his 17-year tenure at Barcelona.

Messi set the record for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland claimed 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 identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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 trio are vying at the top of the standings again this season, with Kane currently leading the way.