The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the current season approaches its halfway mark.
With a different winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to secure the award back in 2022-23.
The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the hunt this campaign, but encounters tough competition from Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.
Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award?
The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the highest scorer 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 points-based points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their league.
Goals scored in Europe's top five leagues—the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are valued at two points apiece.
For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point.
While the honor has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.
If the tie persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be shared.
Identifying the Primary Contenders?
Currently, a three-horse tussle exists for the current season's 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 outings.
- Kylian Mbappe sits one back 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.
Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.
The rest of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule.
A Look at Past Winners
Throughout its 59-year existence, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic stars.
Portuguese icon Eusebio claimed the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.
Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the most Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six separate occasions during his long 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 first and only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.
Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before going on 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 scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.
The award has seen a new winner in each of the past three seasons.
Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the following season.
Kylian Mbappe is the current holder of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.
Now, the same three players are vying at the summit of the standings once more this season, with Kane currently out in front the pack.
