🔗 Share this article

The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the current season approaches its halfway mark.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this term, but encounters tough competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

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

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

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

While the award has been shared on several instances in the past, a regulation update 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 deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the award be split.

Who are the Main Contenders?

At present, a three-way battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga games.
• 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 games.

In fourth 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 tied for 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 function on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Winners

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

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

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

Messi set the record for most goals in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before going on to win it three more times with Real Madrid.

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

The award has seen a new winner in each of the last three seasons.

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

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

Now, the same trio are battling at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane presently leading the pack.