Who's Leading in the Pursuit for the Golden Shoe?

The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the current season nears its midway point.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to secure the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this campaign, but faces stiff competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the highest 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 introduced a points-based scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece.

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

While the honor has been jointly won on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-way battle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners separated by just a solitary 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

In fourth place is Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.

The remainder of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Past Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest legends.

Portuguese icon Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate occasions during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi set the record for highest tally in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won 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 club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The prize 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 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following season.

Kylian Mbappe is the current winner of the award after scoring thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the same three players are battling at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane currently leading the pack.