🔗 Share this article Who is Out in Front in the Race for the Golden Boot Award? The contest for the prestigious Golden Shoe is reaching a fever pitch as the current season approaches its halfway mark. With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains up for grabs. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the last Premier League-based player to secure the award back in the 2022-23 season. The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the running this season, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many matches left to play, other players still have time to throw their hat into the contest. Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe have all claimed one European Golden Shoe in their careers. What is the Golden Shoe? The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 by the France-based newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league. Since the 1997-98 season, the prize has been administered by European Sports Media, which implemented a points-based points system. Under this format, a player's goals are multiplied by a specific multiplier based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition. Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are valued at two points each. For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA list, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other 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 states that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played. If the deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the number of assists, followed by the fewest goals from the penalty spot. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the award be shared. Identifying the Main Challengers? As it stands, a three-way battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a single goal. Harry Kane (English 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 just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga games. In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's side RFS, who has netted 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 term. The rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule. A Look at Previous Winners Lionel Messi holds the distinction for the most Golden Shoe awards in history with six wins. Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest legends. Portuguese icon Eusébio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL 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, collecting the honor on six separate times during his long tenure at Barcelona. Messi established the benchmark for most goals 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 successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19. Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Man Utd before proceeding to win it three more times 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 prize has seen a new winner in every one of the last three seasons. Erling Haaland scooped the award 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 goal tally for Bayern Munich the next year. Kylian Mbappe is the current winner of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25. Now, the very three players are vying at the summit of the standings again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.