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The battle for the European Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season passes its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to win the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this season, but faces tough rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches left to play, other talents still have time to enter the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to honor the leading goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

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

Goals scored in the continent's five major leagues—the Premier League, Spanish 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 rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on several instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these criteria are used would the award be split.

Who are the Primary Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

Dutch side 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 Past Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate times during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for highest tally in a single season 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 proceeding to win it three more times 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.

The prize has seen a new winner in each of the past 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 same goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the same three players are vying at the top of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the way.