🔗 Share this article

The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the current season approaches its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to win the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this term, but faces formidable rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches left to play, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to recognize the leading scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are weighted with a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, 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 award has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be shared.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 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 netted 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 season.

The rest of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Previous Winners

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest legends.

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate times during his 17-year spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the record for highest tally in a campaign 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 to 2019.

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 English club was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland claimed the award 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 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 same three players are vying at the top of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently out in front the way.