🔗 Share this article Who is Out in Front in the Race for the European Golden Shoe? The competition for the European Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season approaches its mid-season juncture. With a different winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the honor remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to secure the award back in the 2022-23 season. The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this campaign, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest. Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe have each secured one European Golden Shoe to date. What is the European Golden Shoe Award? The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the leading goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league. Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their league. Goals scored in Europe's five major leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1—are worth two points each. For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point. While the award has been shared on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played. If the tie persists, the next deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the award be shared. Identifying the Leading Challengers? Currently, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners separated by just a solitary goal. Harry Kane (England 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games. In fourth place is Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025. Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season. The rest of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule. A Look at Past Winners Lionel Messi holds the record for the highest number of Golden Shoe awards in history with six. Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's most iconic legends. Portuguese legend Eusébio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73. Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his 17-year 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 only player to ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19. Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before proceeding 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC. The prize has seen a different winner in every one of the last three seasons. Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the next season. Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner of the award after scoring thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25. Now, the very trio are battling at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane presently leading the pack.