🔗 Share this article

The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the current season passes its halfway mark.

With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the honor remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is back in the mix this term, but encounters tough competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to honor the leading goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on several instances 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 tie persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the number 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 Primary Contenders?

At present, a three-way battle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 games.

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

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

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

A Look at Past Recipients

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

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six occasions during his 17-year spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the record 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 consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won 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 club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland won the prize 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 identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year.

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 competing at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently leading the pack.