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

With a different winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this season, but faces formidable rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the leading goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half 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 rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

At present, a three-way race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth place is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

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

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

Reviewing Previous Recipients

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic legends.

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six occasions during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the record for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a different 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 thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season.

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

Now, the same trio are competing at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.