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The contest for the European Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the prize remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this season, but faces stiff competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures left to play, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the leading goalscorer 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 introduced a points-based scoring 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 the continent's five major leagues—the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points apiece.

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the event of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

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

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

At present, a three-horse battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners separated by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga games.
• 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 place is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

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

The remainder of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Recipients

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic legends.

Portuguese legend Eusébio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark for most goals 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 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before going on to win it on three further occasions 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 scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

The award has seen a different winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland won the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the very three players are competing at the top of the standings once more this season, with Kane currently leading the way.