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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

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

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this season, but encounters stiff competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

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

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry 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 points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Leading Contenders?

Currently, a three-horse battle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners separated by just a solitary 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this season.

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

Reviewing Past Recipients

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio claimed 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 secured the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six times during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark 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 straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season 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 Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following 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 three players are vying at the summit of the standings once more this season, with Kane presently out in front the way.