Final week noticed Kylian Mbappé lastly grow to be the proud recipient of the European Golden Shoe award that he really received months in the past by ending as the highest purpose scorer of the continent’s prime divisions within the 2024-25 season.
Having formally claimed the award again in Might, the France striker was belatedly offered together with his trophy earlier than Actual Madrid’s LaLiga fixture in opposition to Valencia final weekend.
Mbappé scored 31 league objectives final marketing campaign to make sure that he added his title to a star-studded checklist of earlier European Golden Shoe winners. He additionally grew to become solely the third Blancos participant to earn the celebrated award behind membership idols Hugo Sánchez and Cristiano Ronaldo, who claimed the award thrice as a Madrid participant and as soon as with Manchester United.
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A complete host of different elite purpose scorers have additionally received the Golden Shoe since its inception in 1967-68, with Eusébio taking the inaugural prize earlier than the likes of Gerd Müller, Marco van Basten, Hristo Stoichkov, Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Robert Lewandowski and Harry Kane, who received the award in 2023-24.
Nonetheless, for all of the heavyweights to have hoisted the Golden Shoe up to now, the chase for the 2025-26 award isn’t being led by Erling Haaland or Mbappé, however by a relatively obscure striker by the title of Darko Lemajic, who performs in Latvia with Rigas Futbola Skola (RFS) and is narrowly forward of his rivals within the race.
The 32-year-old is at present main the pursuit for the 2025-26 European Golden Boot this season, having scored 28 objectives already. Nonetheless, the Latvian Virsliga is actually a summer time league that normally runs between March and November. Subsequently, Lemajic has had 35 league video games to amass his spectacular tally whereas the likes of Haaland, Mbappé et al are roughly solely 10 video games into their home campaigns.
How the European Golden Shoe award works
It is also essential to take the style wherein the European Golden Shoe leaderboard is calculated under consideration. Slightly than the outright variety of objectives scored by a person participant, since 1997 the award has been determined utilizing a weighted factors system that assigns numerous issue multipliers based mostly on the perceived competitiveness of the league in query.
Utilizing UEFA’s coefficient rankings, the system dictates that objectives scored by a participant in one in every of Europe’s “prime 5” leagues had been scored in tougher circumstances and are due to this fact multiplied by an element of two and transformed into factors. Targets scored in European league competitions additional down the coefficient rankings (between 6-22) are multiplied by an element of 1.5, whereas objectives scored in leagues thereunder (22 and beneath) are multiplied by an element of 1.
That implies that Lemajic’s 28 objectives within the Virsliga are price 28 factors within the standings (having been multiplied by one) and Haaland and Mbappé’s 13 objectives apiece are price 26 factors, having been multiplied by two. So the latter pair are already simply two factors behind the RFS goal man regardless of having scored fewer than half as many objectives.
It is usually why an inordinate variety of gamers from the Scandinavian leagues are nestled within the prime 10, as in addition they largely play to summer time schedules with lots of their seasons having already come to a detailed forward of the chilly winter months.
Lemajic nonetheless has one league recreation of his season to play, that means he might effectively add to his tally earlier than issues wrap up over within the Latvian prime flight.
Under is a rundown of the highest 10 because it stands.
10. Harry Kane, Bayern Munich (12 objectives, 24 factors)
Carrying on his unimaginable type from final season, Kane has 12 league objectives in simply 9 Bundesliga video games this season, that means that he’s more likely to ascend the 2025-26 European Golden Shoe leaderboard within the weeks and months to come back. Ought to the England captain efficiently keep his formidable home goal-scoring fee, there may be each likelihood he can reclaim the award from Mbappé come the ultimate rely.
9. Nahir Besara, Hammarby IF (17 objectives, 25.5 factors)
Hammarby are second within the Swedish Allsvenskan with one matchday nonetheless to play and Besara is one in every of three gamers who’re degree on the prime of the league’s goal-scoring charts. The 34-year-old’s objectives, nevertheless, haven’t been sufficient to forestall the Stockholm membership, which is co-owned by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, from ending a distance behind upstart minnows Mjällby AIF, who claimed the 2025 title in sensational trend.
8. Ibrahim Diabate, GAIS (17 objectives, 25.5 factors)
The second of the three gamers atop the Allsvenskan goal-scoring charts, Diabate has 17 objectives for GAIS, who will end third narrowly behind Hammarby and due to this fact qualify for the UEFA Convention League qualifying spherical consequently.
7. August Priske, Djurgården (17 objectives, 25.5 factors)
The third and ultimate striker from the 2025 Allsvenskan Golden Boot race, Denmark under-20 worldwide Priske hit 17 objectives for Djurgården.
6. Kasper Høgh, Bodo/Glimt (17 objectives, 25.5 factors)
With the Norwegian Eliteserien operating between Might and November like many Scandinavian leagues, Høgh is joint-level prime scorer within the 2025 with a handful of video games remaining. His Bodo/Glimt facet are at present one level behind leaders Viking FK on the prime of the desk with time operating out, regardless of having led the best way for almost all of the marketing campaign.
5. Daniel Karlsbakk, Sarpsborg FK (17 objectives, 25.5 factors)
Karlsbakk is the person level-pegging with Høgh within the race for Eliteserien Golden Boot, although Sarpsborg’s marketing campaign has been far much less dramatic with the membership — which was solely fashioned 17 years in the past — bobbing round in ninth place with simply 4 fixtures remaining.
4. Klaemint Olsen, NSI Runavik (26 objectives, 26 factors)
There’s each likelihood you are not au fait with the style wherein the 2025 Faroe Islands Premier League season performed out, however we’re right here to tell you that Runavik completed third, some 13 factors behind eventual title winners KI Klaksvik. They’ll no less than take some solace in the truth that their star striker Olsen managed to comfortably outscore KI’s Pall Klettskard to energy his technique to the highest of the scoring charts.
3. Kylian Mbappé, Actual Madrid (13 objectives, 26 factors)
With simply 11 video games performed this season, Mbappé seems to be taking his protection of the European Golden Shoe significantly. The 26-year-old France worldwide is already six objectives away from his closest rival on the peak of the LaLiga scoring chart for 2025-26 after discovering the web no less than as soon as in every of his final eight consecutive league outings for Los Blancos.
2. Erling Haaland, Manchester Metropolis (13 objectives, 26 factors)
One other enormous expertise who’s scoring for enjoyable this season, Haaland has made it his enterprise to mercilessly bully Premier League defenders over the course of the 2025-26 season up to now, scoring 11 objectives in 13 league video games for Metropolis. As if to additional cement his credentials, the Norway worldwide can also be getting ready to changing into the quickest participant ever to achieve 100 Premier League objectives, with one other brace sufficient to smash Alan Shearer’s 30-year-old document.
1. Darko Lemajic, Rigas Futbola Skola (28 objectives, 28 factors)
Standing at 6-foot-6, Lemajic is an imposing striker who has positively made his presence felt within the Latvian prime flight. The Serbian is in his second stint with Rigas Futbola Skola having spent a few years in Belgium with KAA Gent, however spent the 2025 season scoring for enjoyable as his facet completed runners-up, inside 5 factors of eventual title-winners Riga FC. So potent was Lemajic that he really scored twice as many objectives as the following greatest marksman within the league, with Ingars Pulis of FK Tukums 2000 scoring 16 objectives to complete second within the operating.