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The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season nears its mid-season juncture.

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

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the hunt this season, but faces formidable rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other players still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the strength ranking of their league.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the award has been shared on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

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

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

Currently, a three-horse tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 just behind 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.

Feyenoord forward 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 calendar year schedule.

A Look at Past Recipients

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

Portuguese icon Eusebio won the first-ever 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 separate times during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for highest tally in a single season with fifty 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 claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before going on 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.

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

Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following year.

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

Now, the very trio are battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently leading the way.