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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season passes its midway point.

With a different winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the hunt this term, but faces tough competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

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

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

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

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

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse battle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth place is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 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 made up of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Past Recipients

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate occasions during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

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

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

The prize has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons.

Erling Haaland claimed 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 goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year.

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

Now, the very trio are battling at the top of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane presently leading the way.