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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the 2025-26 season passes its midway point.

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

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the hunt this season, but faces stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games left to play, other players still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's 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 shared on several occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Identifying the Leading Contenders?

At present, a three-horse tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 games.

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

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

The rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Recipients

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's biggest stars.

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate times during his 17-year tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the record for highest tally in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before proceeding to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The first player to win the award while at an English club was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored 32 goals for Liverpool.

The prize has seen a different 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 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 thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the very three players are battling at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.