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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to win the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this season, but encounters formidable rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches remaining, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award 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 weighted points system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.

Goals scored in Europe's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, 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 carry one point.

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

If the deadlock persists, the next deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be split.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

As it stands, a three-horse 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 (England 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

A Look at Past Recipients

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic names.

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six occasions during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the record for highest tally in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd 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 Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

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

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

Now, the same three players are vying at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the pack.