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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season passes its mid-season juncture.

With a new winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to secure the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this term, but faces tough rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

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

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half 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 tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be split.

Who are the Leading Contenders?

At present, a three-horse race is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

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

In fourth place is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

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

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

Reviewing Past Recipients

Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic legends.

Portuguese legend Eusebio won 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.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six times during his long spell at Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for most goals 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 season with Man Utd before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The first player to win the award while at an English club was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a different winner in every one of the past three seasons.

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

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

Now, the very three players are battling at the summit of the standings again this season, with Kane currently leading the way.