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The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is heating up as the current season passes its midway point.

With a different winner in every one of the past three campaigns, the prize remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to secure the award back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the running this term, but encounters tough competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches remaining, other talents still have time to throw their hat into the contest.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 season by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the top goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based scoring system. Under this format, a player's goals are weighted with a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked 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 dictates that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the least goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Identifying the Main Challengers?

Currently, a three-way race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three previous winners separated by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (English captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• Erling Haaland also has 19 goals (38 points) from 17 Premier League appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

The remainder of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

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

Portuguese legend Eusébio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He later won 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 award on six times during his long spell at FC Barcelona.

Messi set the record for highest tally in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever to win it in three successive 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 three more times with Real Madrid.

The inaugural player to win the award while at an English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he netted 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a new winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland claimed the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the following 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 very trio are battling at the summit of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the pack.