🔗 Share this article

The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. 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 goal-scorer is back in the running this season, but faces stiff competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the France-based publication L'Equipe to recognize the highest scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted points system. Under this format, a player's tallies are weighted with a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's list, 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 shared on several occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be split.

Who are the Primary Contenders?

At present, a three-way tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent 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 one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-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 calendar year schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

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

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six occasions during his 17-year tenure 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 consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 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 English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored 32 goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland scooped the prize 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 goal tally for Bayern Munich the following year.

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 vying at the summit of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.