🔗 Share this article

The competition for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season passes its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to secure the award back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this term, but faces formidable rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other talents still have time to enter the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize 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 introduced a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points each.

For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other 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 event of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next deciding factor is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be shared.

Identifying the Primary Challengers?

Currently, a three-way tussle exists for the current season's 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 outings.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

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

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

The remainder of the current top ten is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Previous Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest names.

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 maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate times during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for highest tally 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 successive seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before going on 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool.

The prize has seen a new winner in each of the past 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 secured his first Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following year.

Kylian Mbappe is the current winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the same three players are competing at the summit of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.