Who is Out in Front in the Contest for the Golden Shoe?
The battle for the European Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season passes its midway point.
With a different winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the honor remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to win the trophy back in 2022-23.
The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the running this season, but faces stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other talents still have an opportunity to enter the fray.
What is the European Golden Shoe Award?
The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 season by the France-based publication L'Equipe to recognize the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.
Since the 1997-98, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted scoring system. Under this method, a player's goals are weighted with a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.
Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points apiece.
For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.
While the honor has been shared on several occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 dictates that in the event of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.
If the deadlock remains, the next tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are used would the award be shared.
Who are the Primary Contenders?
At present, a three-horse battle is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent 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 matches.
In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.
Dutch side Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season.
The rest of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.
A Look at Past Recipients
Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic names.
Portuguese icon Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.
Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six times during his 17-year tenure at FC Barcelona.
Messi set the benchmark for most goals in a campaign with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before proceeding to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.
The inaugural player to win the award while at an English club was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.
The prize has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons.
Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the same total 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 very three players are vying at the summit of the standings once more this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the way.
