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

With a new winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to win the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this term, but encounters stiff competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, 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 rule change from the 2019-20 season states that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the prize be shared.

Who are the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-way race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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 striker Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest legends.

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six times during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the record for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the next 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 very three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently leading the way.