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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season nears its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in each of the past three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based player to win the trophy back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the hunt this term, but faces tough rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many games remaining, other players still have time to enter the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to celebrate the top goalscorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league.

Since the 1997-98, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a points-based points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition.

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

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's 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 several occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 states that in the event of a points tie, the trophy goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the deadlock persists, the next tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are used would the award be shared.

Identifying the Primary Contenders?

Currently, a three-way race is underway 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 games.
• Erling Haaland also has 19 goals (38 points) from 17 Premier League appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits one back on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

Dutch side Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie fixtures this term.

The rest of the current top ten is made up of players from leagues that operate on a calendar year schedule.

Reviewing Past Recipients

Throughout its nearly six-decade existence, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic names.

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

Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six times during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

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

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 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.

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

Erling Haaland won the award 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 identical 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 very trio are competing at the summit of the leaderboard once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.