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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its halfway mark.

With a different winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the hunt this season, but encounters formidable competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to honor the top scorer 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 points system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be shared.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse 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 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 matches.

In fourth 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.

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

The rest 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 won by some of football's most iconic names.

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the inaugural 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 won the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six times during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals 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 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before going on to win it on three further occasions 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 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the next season.

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 battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane currently out in front the way.