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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the current season approaches its midway point.

With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to claim the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this season, but faces tough rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other players still have an opportunity to enter the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to honor the highest scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

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

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Who are the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse race is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this term.

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

A Look at Past Recipients

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

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his 17-year spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the record for most goals 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 season with Manchester United before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

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

The prize has seen a new winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year.

Kylian Mbappe is the reigning winner 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 again this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.