Who's Out in Front in the Contest for the European Golden Shoe?

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

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

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this campaign, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches remaining, other talents still have time 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 French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top scorer in league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's 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 award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Leading Contenders?

Currently, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season.

The remainder of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Previous Recipients

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

Portuguese legend 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.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six times during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

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

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before proceeding to win it on three further occasions 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The award 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 secured his first 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 same three players are competing at the summit of the standings again this season, with Kane presently leading the way.