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The contest for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the current season passes its halfway mark.

With a new winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to claim the award back in 2022-23.

The prolific Norwegian striker is once again in the mix this campaign, but encounters stiff competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the fray.

What is the Golden Shoe?

The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to honor the highest scorer in domestic league matches from a European top-flight league.

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

Goals scored in the continent's top five leagues—the English 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 list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth 1.5 points. Goals in all other European leagues are worth one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 dictates that in the case of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the fewest minutes played.

If the tie persists, the next tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only after these criteria are exhausted would the prize be shared.

Who are the Primary Challengers?

As it stands, a three-way race is underway for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a single goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga matches.
• 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 RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 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 term.

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

Reviewing Past Recipients

Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's biggest legends.

Portuguese legend Eusebio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has secured the most Golden Shoes, claiming the honor on six separate times during his 17-year spell at Barcelona.

Messi set the benchmark for most goals in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three successive seasons from 2016-17 to 2018-19.

Portuguese megastar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before proceeding to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

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

The prize has seen a different winner in each of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland scooped the award for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record-equaling thirty-six goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same total for Bayern Munich the next season.

Kylian Mbappe is the current winner of the award after scoring thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the same trio are vying at the summit of the leaderboard once more this season, with Kane presently leading the way.