Who is Leading in the Contest for the Golden Shoe?

The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the 2025-26 season passes its halfway mark.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to claim the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is back in the running this season, but encounters tough rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games left to play, other players still have an opportunity to enter the contest.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are weighted with a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the honor has been jointly won on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

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

Who are the Leading Contenders?

As it stands, a three-way tussle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England 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 RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season.

The rest of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Previous Winners

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

Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend 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 first and only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United 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 netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool.

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

Erling Haaland won the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total 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 competing at the summit of the standings again this campaign, with Kane presently leading the pack.