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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season nears its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to secure the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this season, but encounters tough competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures left to play, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the France-based publication L'Equipe to celebrate the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are weighted with a specific multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are worth two points each.

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

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

If the deadlock persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the award be split.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

Currently, a three-way tussle exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of 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 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 January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Recipients

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

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United 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 Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland claimed 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 next year.

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

Now, the very trio are vying at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the pack.