🔗 Share this article Who is Leading in the Contest for the Golden Boot Award? The competition for the European Golden Shoe is intensifying as the current season passes its midway point. With a different winner in every one of the previous three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to claim the trophy back in the 2022-23 season. The prolific Norwegian goal-scorer is once again in the mix this campaign, but faces stiff rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other talents still have time to enter the contest. Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe have all claimed one European Golden Shoe in their careers. Understanding the European Golden Shoe Award? The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to celebrate the leading goalscorer in league matches from a European top-flight league. Since the 1997-98, the prize has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are weighted with a specific coefficient based on the UEFA coefficient of their domestic competition. Goals scored in Europe's top five leagues—the English Premier League, La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece. For leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA's rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point. While the honor has been jointly won on multiple instances 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 persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the award be shared. Who are the Leading Contenders? As it stands, a three-horse race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split by just a solitary 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 outings. Kylian Mbappe sits one back 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 scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025. Dutch side Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is tied for fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this season. The rest of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule. Reviewing Past Winners Lionel Messi holds the record for the most Golden Shoe awards in the award's history with six. Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic stars. Portuguese icon Eusébio won the first-ever trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then won the award for a second time in the 1972-73. Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six separate times during his 17-year spell at FC Barcelona. Messi set the record for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever to win it in three straight seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19. Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Manchester United before proceeding to win it on three further occasions 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 prize has seen a new winner in every one of the last 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 first Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the following 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 standings once more this campaign, with Kane currently out in front the way.