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The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is heating up as the 2025-26 season passes its midway point.

With a new winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the prize remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based striker to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian striker is once again in the running this campaign, but faces stiff rivalry from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches remaining, other players still have time to throw their hat into the fray.

Understanding the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was introduced in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to recognize the highest goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a designated coefficient based on the strength ranking of their league.

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

For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half 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 season states that in the case of a tie, the trophy goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the deadlock remains, the subsequent tiebreaker is the number of league assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only after these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split.

Who are the Main Challengers?

At present, a three-horse race is underway for the 2025-26 Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a single 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 appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games.

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

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

The rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Past Winners

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's biggest names.

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for SL Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73 season.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the award on six occasions during his long tenure at FC Barcelona.

Messi established the record for most goals in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 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 32 goals for Liverpool FC.

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

Erling Haaland won the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical total 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 top of the standings again this campaign, with Kane currently leading the pack.