Who's Leading in the Pursuit for the Golden Boot Award?
The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is intensifying as the 2025-26 season nears its midway point.
With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the prize remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to secure the award back in 2022-23.
The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the running this season, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With plenty of matches remaining, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the contest.
Understanding the Golden Shoe?
The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 season by the France-based publication L'Equipe to recognize the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.
Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.
Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece.
For competitions ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.
While the award has been jointly won on several occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season states that in the event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.
If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the award be split.
Identifying the Primary Challengers?
Currently, a three-way battle is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.
In fourth is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian club RFS, who has netted 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.
Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for 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 operate on a January-to-December schedule.
Reviewing Past Recipients
Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest names.
Portuguese legend Eusebio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.
Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his long spell at Barcelona.
Messi established the record for highest tally in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019.
Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United 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 netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.
The prize has seen a different winner in each of the last three seasons.
Erling Haaland claimed the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season.
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 vying at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane currently leading the pack.
