🔗 Share this article Who is Out in Front in the Contest for the Golden Shoe? The competition for the European Golden Shoe is heating up as the current season passes its mid-season juncture. With a new winner in each of the previous three campaigns, the prize remains up for grabs. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based forward to secure the trophy back in the 2022-23 season. The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this campaign, but faces formidable competition from German Bundesliga forward Harry Kane and Real Madrid phenomenon Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures left to play, other players still have time to throw their hat into the contest. Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe have all secured one European Golden Shoe in their careers. Understanding the Golden Shoe? The European Golden Shoe was introduced in the 1967-68 by the France-based publication L'Equipe to celebrate the top scorer in domestic league matches from a European top division league. Since the 1997-98 season, the award has been overseen by European Sports Media, which implemented a weighted scoring system. Under this format, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition. Goals scored in the continent's five major leagues—the Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are valued at two points each. For competitions ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA rankings, such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in lower-ranked European leagues carry one point. While the honor has been shared on multiple instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 season dictates that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played. If the deadlock persists, the subsequent tiebreaker is the total of league assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are exhausted would the prize be split. Identifying the Leading Challengers? At present, a three-horse battle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of previous winners split 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 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 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 fixtures this term. The remainder of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that function on a January-to-December schedule. Reviewing Previous Recipients Lionel Messi holds the record for the highest number of Golden Shoe awards in the award's history with six. Throughout its 59-year history, the Golden Shoe has been claimed by some of football's biggest names. Portuguese legend Eusébio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring forty-two goals for Benfica. He then secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73. Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, claiming the award on six times during his long tenure at Barcelona. Messi established the record for most goals in a single season with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the first and only player to ever to win it in three consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019. Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo first won award in the 2007-08 with Man Utd before proceeding to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid. The first player to win the award while at an club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored 32 goals for Liverpool. The prize has seen a different 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 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane earned his maiden Golden Shoe with the identical goal tally for Bayern Munich the next season. Kylian Mbappe is the reigning 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 season, with Kane presently leading the pack.