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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this campaign, but faces tough rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to honor the highest goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

Goals scored in Europe's five major leagues—the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece.

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, 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 shared on multiple instances 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 deadlock persists, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be shared.

Identifying the Main Contenders?

At present, a three-horse tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent 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 Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club 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 season.

The rest of the top 10 is comprised 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 biggest legends.

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

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

Messi established the benchmark for highest tally in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three straight seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

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

The award has seen a different 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 goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year.

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

Now, the very trio are vying at the summit of the standings once more this season, with Kane presently leading the pack.