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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the current season approaches its mid-season juncture.

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

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the hunt this season, but encounters formidable competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the France-based publication L'Equipe to honor the leading goalscorer 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 implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

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

While the honor has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be split.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way race is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners split by just a single 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvian club 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 matches this season.

The remainder of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusebio won the inaugural 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 won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate times during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi set the record for most goals in a single season 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 Manchester United before proceeding 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 FC.

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

Erling Haaland won 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 next year.

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 trio are vying at the top of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.