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

With a new winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this term, but faces stiff competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games left to play, other talents still have time to enter the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to honor 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 weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

While the award has been jointly won on several instances in the past, a rule change 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 persists, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Who are the Leading Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way battle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners separated 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 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 season.

The rest of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusebio won 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 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for most goals in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United 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 thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the next year.

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

Now, the same three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the pack.