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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the current season passes its midway point.

With a different winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to secure the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this season, but encounters formidable rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other talents still have time to enter the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the top 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 implemented a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be shared.

Who are the Primary Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side 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 matches this season.

The rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

A Look at Previous Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic stars.

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six occasions during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

Messi established the record for highest tally 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 successive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before going on to win it three more times 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 FC.

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

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

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

Now, the same trio are vying at the top of the standings once more this season, with Kane currently out in front the pack.