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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the current season passes its mid-season juncture.

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

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the running this term, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the leading scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next deciding factor is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be split.

Identifying the Leading Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

The remainder of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Recipients

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

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for 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, collecting the award on six times during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd 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 Liverpool's 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 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 following season.

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

Now, the very trio are competing at the top of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane presently leading the way.