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The battle for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season approaches its midway point.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to secure the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this term, but faces tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other talents still have time to enter the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to honor the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's goals 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 Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are worth two points each.

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

If the tie persists, the next deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these criteria are used would the prize be shared.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

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

• Harry Kane (English 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian 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 joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.

The rest of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic names.

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate times during his long spell at FC 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 date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 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 netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

The prize has seen a new 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 thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following season.

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

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