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The competition for the European Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season approaches its halfway mark.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to win the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this term, but faces formidable rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other talents still have time to enter the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the top 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 scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, 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 several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Identifying the Main Contenders?

Currently, a three-horse race is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners split by just a solitary 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season.

The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Past Winners

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic stars.

Portuguese legend Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six occasions during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the record for highest tally 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 Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

The first player to win the award while at an club in England was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical total 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 very trio are competing at the top of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the pack.