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

With a new winner in each of the last three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to secure the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the mix this campaign, but encounters formidable competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other talents still have time to enter the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

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

Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been shared on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season states that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be shared.

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

At present, a three-horse tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• Erling Haaland also has 19 goals (38 points) from 17 Premier League outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind 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 netted 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

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

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

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate times during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established 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 consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before going on 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 32 goals for Liverpool.

The prize 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 earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the following season.

Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner 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 again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the way.