Who is Leading in the Contest for the European Golden Shoe?
The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the current season nears its halfway mark.
With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to secure the award back in 2022-23.
The prodigious Norwegian striker is back in the running this season, but encounters formidable rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the fray.
What is the Golden Shoe?
The Golden Boot award was first launched in the 1967-68 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to honor the leading scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.
Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the strength ranking of their league.
Goals scored in Europe's five major leagues—the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points each.
For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.
While the award 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 award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.
If the tie persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are used would the prize be split.
Identifying the Leading Challengers?
Currently, a three-horse battle is underway for the 2025-26 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 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 matches.
In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.
Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.
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 nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's biggest names.
Portuguese icon Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.
Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate times during his long tenure at Barcelona.
Messi set the benchmark for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before going on to win it three more times with Real Madrid.
The first player to win the award while at an club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted thirty-two 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-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 reigning winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.
Now, the same trio are battling at the summit of the standings again this campaign, with Kane presently leading the pack.
