🔗 Share this article Who is Leading in the Pursuit for the Golden Boot Award? The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the 2025-26 season approaches its mid-season juncture. With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the prize remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based forward to claim the award back in the 2022-23 season. The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this term, but faces tough rivalry from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many matches remaining, other talents still have time to enter the fray. Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe have each won one European Golden Shoe so far. Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award? The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league. Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based points system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a designated coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league. Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points each. For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point. While the award 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 trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played. If the tie persists, the next deciding factor is the total of assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these criteria are used would the prize be shared. Identifying the Leading Contenders? At present, a three-horse battle is underway for the current season's 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 games. 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 games. In fourth is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club 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 rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule. A Look at Previous Recipients Lionel Messi holds the distinction for the most Golden Shoe awards in history with six. Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic stars. Portuguese legend Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season. Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six occasions during his 17-year tenure at Barcelona. Messi established the benchmark for most goals in a single season with 50 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 superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before proceeding to win it three more times with Real Madrid. The first player to win the award while at an club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool. The prize has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons. Erling Haaland claimed the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his first Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year. Kylian Mbappe is the reigning holder of the award after scoring thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25. Now, the same three players are competing at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the pack.