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The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season approaches its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to win the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this season, but encounters stiff competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding 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 scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

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

While the award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be shared.

Who are the Primary Challengers?

As it stands, a three-horse battle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

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

The rest of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Previous Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade 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.

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

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 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 last three seasons.

Erling Haaland won the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following year.

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

Now, the very three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently out in front the way.