🔗 Share this article Who is Out in Front in the Contest for the Golden Boot Award? The battle for the European Golden Shoe is intensifying as the current season approaches its mid-season juncture. With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the honor remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season. The prodigious Norwegian striker is back in the mix this campaign, but encounters tough rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest. Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe have each won one European Golden Shoe to date. Understanding the Golden Shoe? The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the top goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league. Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition. Goals scored in the continent's five major leagues—the English Premier League, 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 one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point. While the award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played. If the deadlock remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split. Who are the Main Challengers? At present, a three-horse tussle exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single goal. Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga games. 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 RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side RFS, who has netted 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 matches this season. The remainder of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule. A Look at Previous Winners Lionel Messi holds the record for the highest number of Golden Shoe awards in the award's history with six. Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic names. Portuguese legend Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73. Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate occasions during his long tenure at FC Barcelona. Messi established the benchmark for most goals 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 consecutive 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 three more times 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool. The award has seen a new winner in every one of the last three seasons. Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season. Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25. Now, the same trio are competing at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the pack.