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

With a new winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the honor remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to claim the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the hunt this season, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of fixtures left to play, other talents still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the highest goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.

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 each.

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple instances in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

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

Who are the Main Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way race is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners separated by just a solitary 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 place is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across the club's 36 league games in 2025.

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

The remainder of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.

Reviewing Previous Recipients

Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's biggest names.

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

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six times during his 17-year 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 first and only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won 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 scored 32 goals for Liverpool.

The prize has seen a new winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland won the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the identical 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 same trio are battling at the summit of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently leading the way.