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The competition for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to secure the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this season, but encounters stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the award has been shared on several instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the award be split.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

Currently, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

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

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

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio claimed 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 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his long tenure at Barcelona.

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times 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 new winner in every one of the last 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 secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical 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 trio are vying at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.