Who's Leading in the Contest for the European Golden Shoe?
The competition for the European Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears its halfway mark.
With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to claim the award back in 2022-23.
The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the running this season, but encounters stiff competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games left to play, other talents still have time to enter the fray.
Understanding the Golden Shoe?
The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the France-based publication L'Equipe to celebrate the highest goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.
Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.
Goals scored in Europe's top five leagues—the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points each.
For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.
While the honor has been shared on multiple occasions 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 fewest minutes played.
If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are used would the award be split.
Who are the Primary Contenders?
Currently, a three-way tussle exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners separated 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 appearances.
- Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.
In fourth is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across their 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 remainder of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.
A Look at Previous Winners
Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's biggest stars.
Portuguese icon Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.
Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six occasions during his 17-year spell at FC Barcelona.
Messi set 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 date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.
The inaugural player to win the award while at an club in England was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.
The award has seen a different winner in each of the past three seasons.
Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season.
Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner of the award after scoring 31 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 currently out in front the pack.
