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The contest for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season passes its halfway mark.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this campaign, but faces formidable competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the leading scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be split.

Who are the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-way tussle exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

Dutch side Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is tied for 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 function on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six occasions during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the record 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 straight 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 on three further occasions 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 scored 32 goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland claimed the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the next season.

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

Now, the same trio are vying at the summit of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the pack.