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The battle for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season nears its midway point.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to win the award back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the running this campaign, but faces stiff competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures left to play, other players still have time to enter the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth 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 event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

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

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way race is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga matches.
• 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 club RFS, who has netted 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 remainder of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Recipients

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six occasions during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the record 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 claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd 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 scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

The award has seen a different 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-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year.

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

Now, the same trio are battling at the top of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the way.