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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season passes its midway point.

With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to win the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the running this season, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to honor the highest scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

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

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

Who are the Leading Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse battle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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.

Feyenoord forward 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 comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Past Recipients

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's biggest legends.

Portuguese icon Eusebio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six times during his long spell 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 ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before proceeding to win it three more times 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland scooped 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 same total for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

Now, the same three players are competing at the top of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.