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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 previous three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this term, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other talents still have time to enter the fray.

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 top goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based points system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

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

While the honor has been shared on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be split.

Who are the Main Challengers?

As it stands, a three-horse battle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners split 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 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 top 10 is made up of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Recipients

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

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six occasions during his 17-year tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first 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 English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland won the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following year.

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

Now, the same trio are battling at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane presently leading the pack.