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The competition for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season nears its halfway mark.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to win the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the running this campaign, but encounters stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other talents still have time to enter the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the top scorer in domestic 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 weighted points system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the prize be shared.

Who are the Main Contenders?

Currently, a three-way battle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three previous 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

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

A Look at Past Winners

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

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate times during his long spell at Barcelona.

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an English club was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland claimed the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the next year.

Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the very three players are competing at the top of the standings again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.