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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season approaches its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to secure the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this campaign, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to honor the leading scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this format, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, 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 jointly won on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be shared.

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

At present, a three-way battle exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 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.

Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this term.

The remainder of the current top ten 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 Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six times during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

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 FC.

The prize has seen a new winner in every one of the last three seasons.

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

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

Now, the very trio are competing at the top of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently leading the way.