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The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to win the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this campaign, but encounters stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the leading goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based points system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the award be shared.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-way tussle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a solitary 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth place is Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-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.

Reviewing Past Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later secured 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 set the benchmark for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland scooped the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following 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 trio are competing at the top of the standings once more this season, with Kane currently leading the way.