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The competition for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in every one of the last three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to claim the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this campaign, but faces stiff competition from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of games remaining, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was first launched in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the leading goalscorer in league matches from a European top division league.

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

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the next deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the prize be split.

Who are the Primary Contenders?

At present, a three-horse race exists for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• 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 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.

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

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

A Look at Past Recipients

Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest stars.

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate times during his 17-year spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the record for highest tally in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese megastar 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 club in England was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons.

Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the next year.

Kylian Mbappe is the current winner 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 leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the pack.