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The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season nears its midway point.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the prize remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to win the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this campaign, but faces tough competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top goalscorer in domestic 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 scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA 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 award has been jointly won on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners separated by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga games.
• 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 matches.

In fourth place 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 forward Ayase Ueda is tied for 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.

Reviewing Past Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed 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 legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate times during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark for most goals in a campaign with 50 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 megastar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before proceeding 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 thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland won the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season.

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

Now, the very three players are competing at the top of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently leading the way.