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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the current season approaches its mid-season juncture.

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

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this term, but encounters formidable competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches left to play, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the highest goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the award be split.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-way battle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split 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 games.

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

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this term.

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

A Look at Previous Recipients

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate occasions during his 17-year tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark 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 successive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

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

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

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

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

Kylian Mbappe is the current winner of the award after scoring 31 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 presently out in front the way.