The race to win the European Golden Boot award intensifies as the 2025-2026 football season approaches its middle, in light of an open competition that includes an elite group of the continent's most prominent scorers, according to the British network «BBC».The past three seasons have seen a different player crowned each time, with Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, the last Premier League player to win the award, in the 2022-2023 season. Haaland returns to the competition this season, but he faces a strong challenge from Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane and Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe, with a large number of matches remaining that may open the door for other names to enter the race.
The European Golden Boot «or Golden Boot» award was launched in the 1967-1968 season by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honour the top scorer in European leagues in the first division.Since the 1997-1998 season, the European Sports Media Foundation «» has managed the award, adopting a weighted points system, in which players' goals are multiplied by a specific factor according to the European Football Association (UEFA) classification of the league in which they play.Players' goals in the five major European leagues: the English Premier League, the Spanish League, the German League, the Italian League, and the French League are counted as two points for each goal.
England captain Harry Kane leads the standings with 19 goals (38 points) after 15 matches in the German League, while Erling Haaland has the same balance of goals and points (19 goals - 38 points) from 17 matches in the English Premier League. Kylian Mbappe comes in third place with 18 goals (36 points) from 18 matches in the Spanish League so far.Darko Limajic, a player for the Latvian club RFS, ranks fourth after scoring 28 goals (28 points) during 36 matches in the local league for the year 2025. Feyenoord's Dutch striker Ayase Ueda also shares fifth place, after scoring 18 goals (27 points) in 17 matches in the Dutch League this season.
The rest of the top ten places include players active in leagues held according to the calendar year system.For 59 years, a number of the greatest football stars in history have been crowned with the Golden Boot. Portuguese legend Eusebio was the first to win the award in 1968, after scoring 42 goals with Benfica, before winning it again in the 1972-1973 season.Argentine Lionel Messi is the player who has won the award the most times, having won it six times during his 17-year career with Barcelona. He also holds the record for the most goals in a single season, having scored 50 goals in the 2011-2012 season (100 points), in addition to being the only player to have won the award three times in a row between 2016 and 2019.As for Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, he won the Golden Boot for the first time in the 2007-2008 season with Manchester United, before winning it three more times with Real Madrid.
Englishman Ian Rush was the first player to win the award while playing for an English club, after scoring 32 goals with Liverpool in the 1983-1984 season.The last three seasons have seen a different player crowned each time; Haaland won the award in the 2022-2023 season after scoring an English Premier League record of 36 goals (72 points), then Kane won the award for the first time with Bayern Munich the following season with the same total While Mbappe holds the title of the last edition after scoring 31 goals (62 points) with Real Madrid in the 2024-2025 season.The same trio returns to the forefront again this season, with Harry Kane having a slight advantage at the top of the standings so far.
