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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this season, but encounters formidable competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to recognize the highest goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's goals are weighted with a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-way battle 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 matches.

In fourth is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 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 term.

The rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic names.

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate occasions during his 17-year tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the record for most goals 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 straight 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 on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an club in England was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland claimed the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the next season.

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

Now, the very three players are competing at the top of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently leading the pack.