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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the current season nears its midway point.

With a different winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to win the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this campaign, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is 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 league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

Goals scored in the continent's five major leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points apiece.

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

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

If the tie remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Primary Challengers?

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

In fourth place is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

Dutch side Feyenoord forward 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 function on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Previous Recipients

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic stars.

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate occasions during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark 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 consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The first player to win the award while at an club in England was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total for Bayern Munich the next year.

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

Now, the very three players are battling at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane currently leading the way.