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The contest for the European Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears 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 most recent Premier League-based player to claim the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this term, but encounters formidable competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other talents still have time to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd 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 award has been shared on multiple instances 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 least minutes played.

If the tie remains, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the prize be split.

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

Currently, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a single 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 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 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 matches this term.

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

Reviewing Previous Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then 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 FC Barcelona.

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

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 first player to win the award while at an English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

The award has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons.

Erling Haaland scooped the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the same trio are vying at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane currently out in front the way.