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

With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to secure the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this term, but faces stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top scorer 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 weighted 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 the continent's five major leagues—the Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are valued at two points apiece.

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the honor has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the prize be split.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

At present, a three-way tussle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a single 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

In fourth place is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club RFS, who has netted 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 calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate occasions during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi established 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 successive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar 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 Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a new winner in each of the past 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 first Golden Shoe with the same total 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 competing at the summit of the standings once more this season, with Kane currently out in front the way.