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The battle for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season nears its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this campaign, but encounters stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches left to play, other players still have time to enter the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the top scorer in 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 format, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's 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 shared on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

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

Who are the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-way race is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga matches.
• Erling Haaland also has 19 goals (38 points) from 17 Premier League appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this season.

The rest of the current top ten is comprised 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 biggest legends.

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

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

Messi set the record 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 straight 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 three more times with Real Madrid.

The first player to win the award while at an English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 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 thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the next year.

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

Now, the very trio are vying at the top of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane currently leading the way.