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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this season, but faces tough rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

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

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

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

While the honor has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update 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 tie remains, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are used would the prize be split.

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

Currently, a three-horse tussle exists for the current season's 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 fixtures.
• 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 games.

In fourth is RFS striker 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 tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season.

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

Reviewing Past Recipients

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's most iconic stars.

Portuguese icon Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions 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 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 with Man Utd 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 scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a different winner in each of the past 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 secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

Kylian Mbappe is the current holder of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the very three players are battling at the top of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.