🔗 Share this article

The competition for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to claim the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this term, but faces formidable rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

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

Goals scored in Europe's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and 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 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a points 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 least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are used would the award be split.

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way race is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners separated by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

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 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic stars.

Portuguese legend Eusébio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate times during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark 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 megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before going on to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

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

The award has seen a different winner in every one of the last 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 secured his first Golden Shoe with the same total 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 very three players are competing at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.