The competition for the Golden Boot trophy is intensifying as the current season approaches its mid-season juncture.
With a new winner in each of the past three campaigns, the award remains wide open. Premier League star Erling Haaland was the most recent 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 encounters tough rivalry from German Bundesliga marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other players still have an opportunity to throw their hat into the contest.
The Golden Boot award was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the French publication L'Equipe to recognize the leading 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 introduced a weighted points system. Under this method, a player's tallies are weighted with a designated multiplier based on the strength ranking of their league.
Goals scored in Europe's five major leagues—the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece.
For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, 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 jointly won on several instances in the past, a regulation update from the 2019-20 states that in the case of a tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.
If the deadlock persists, the subsequent deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the fewest penalties scored. Only if these criteria are exhausted would the award be split.
As it stands, a three-way race exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the trio of most recent winners separated by just a solitary goal.
In fourth place is RFS striker Darko Lemajic of Latvian side RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.
Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.
The remainder of the top 10 is comprised of players from leagues that function on a calendar year schedule.
Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been awarded to some of football's most iconic legends.
Portuguese icon Eusébio claimed the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for SL Benfica. He later secured the award for a second time in the 1972-73.
Argentine maestro Lionel Messi has secured the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six occasions during his long spell at Barcelona.
Messi set the benchmark for highest tally in a campaign with 50 in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to ever 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 Manchester United before going on to win it three more times with Real Madrid.
The inaugural player to win the award while at an club in England was Liverpool's Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool.
The award has seen a new winner in every one of the past three seasons.
Erling Haaland won the award 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 total for Bayern Munich the next season.
Kylian Mbappe is the current holder of the award after scoring 31 goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.
Now, the same trio are competing at the summit of the leaderboard again this campaign, with Kane presently out in front the pack.
A seasoned software engineer with a passion for open-source projects and tech education.
