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The battle for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this season, but faces stiff competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Identifying the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-way tussle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a solitary 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club RFS, who has netted 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 fixtures this term.

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

Reviewing Previous Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later won 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 FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before proceeding to win it on three further occasions 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 new winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the same three players are battling at the summit of the standings once more this season, with Kane currently leading the pack.