Who is Leading in the Race for the European Golden Shoe?

The battle for the European Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season passes its midway point.

With a different winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is back in the running this season, but encounters stiff competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other talents still have time to enter the contest.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the top scorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted scoring system. Under this method, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other 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 season states that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be shared.

Who are the Main Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way tussle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• 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 place is Darko Lemajic of Latvian side 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 term.

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

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusebio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate occasions during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

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

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

Erling Haaland claimed the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

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