European Golden Boot Race: Top Scorers, Standings

The European Golden Boot is up for grabs again in 2025–26, as the continent’s most efficient finishers vie to claim the prize after Kylian Mbappé’s success last season.

The prize is awarded to the highest scorer across all domestic leagues in Europe, with the system in place operating favourably for those competing in the premier divisions. There hasn’t been a European Golden Boot victor from outside of Europe’s top-five leagues since Sporting CP’s Mário Jardel triumphed for a second time in 2001–02.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, enjoyed their fair share of the award while they were wreaking havoc, but, similar to the Ballon d’Or, their respective departures from the European scene have allowed alternative sharpshooters to emerge regarding the collection of this prize. Luis Suárez and Robert Lewandowski are both multi-time winners since 2013.

It’ll likely be an all too familiar face topping the charts this time around, despite the fact there have been three different winners in the three previous seasons.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2025–26 European Golden Boot race.

The European Golden Boot has been awarded on a weighted-points-based system since 1997, with goals scored in one of Europe’s top-five leagues—Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1—counting for double.

Goals from players in leagues ranked sixth to 22nd in UEFA’s coefficient, such as the Dutch Eredivisie and Portugal’s Primeira Liga, are worth 1.5 points. Goals from the remaining players competing in the remaining European leagues are worth one point.

The player with the most points at the end of the season wins the award.

See also  Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show: FC Köln X-X Bayern Munich

Goals: 13
Coefficient: 2
Points: 26

While collective success eluded Harry Kane before winning the 2024–25 Bundesliga, the English striker has never been shy of individual honours.

Kane claimed the European Golden Boot during his first season with Bayern Munich, as he came within touching distance of Robert Lewandowski’s single-season Bundesliga scoring record.

The striker has another shot of usurping the Pole’s haul of 41 in 2025–26, with Kane starting what has the makings of an incredibly exciting season for Vincent Kompany’s side in excellent form.

Goals: 18
Coefficient: 1.5
Points: 27

The Scandinavian leagues are much deeper into their respective seasons than those involved in Europe’s premier divisions, so it’s no surprise that a few lesser-known names occupy spots towards the top of the scoring charts.

Among those is GAIS’ Ivorian hero Ibrahim Diabaté, who finished joint-top of the Golden Boot race in the Swedish Allsvenskan with 18 goals.

Diabaté had scored just one top-flight European goal before his breakthrough 2025 campaign with GAIS. The 25-year-old will slide down the European Golden Boot charts in short order, though.

Goals: 18
Coefficient: 1.5
Points: 27

Djurgården striker August Priske matched Diabaté’s 18-goal haul in the 2025 Allsvenskan, and the 21-year-old Danish forward now looks poised to take the next step in his career.

Priske’s development was overseen by the esteemed FC Midtjylland academy in his homeland, but his potential has been realised in Stockholm.

Goals: 28
Coefficient: 1
Points: 28

While Diabaté and Priske’s 18-goal hauls were weighted by the Allsvenskan’s coefficient, RFS hitman Darko Lemajić has had to do all the hard work himself.

The Serbian striker made club history in 2025, as he became their first-ever player to score 30 goals in a single season for the Latvian club, who finished second in the league despite Lemajić’s stellar form.

28 came in league action, as the 32-year-old enjoyed the most prolific season of his career.

Goals: 14
Coefficient: 2
Points: 28

Erling Haaland was an imperious victor of this award in 2022–23, and he looks primed to triumph again in 2025–26.

Manchester City have been reliant on the freakish scoring gifts of their Nordic robot at the start of the new season, with Haaland functioning like a man possessed after a disappointing 2024–25 campaign was further inhibited by an injury late on.

Ranking as per Transfermarkt.com

The European Golden Boot was first handed out by French newspaper L’Equipe in 1967–68, with Portuguese icon Eusébio claiming the first award with 42 goals.

While L’Equipe were in charge, winners surfaced from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania, Austria and Yugoslavia’s top flights, but the award, much like the sport as a whole, has become much more hegemonic since it was rebooted by the European Sports Media in 1997.

Since then, all but four of the Golden Boot victors have played in Europe’s top-five leagues. The only outliers have been Vitesse’s Nikos Machlas, Celtic’s Henrik Larsson and Mário Jardel, who prevailed while representing Benfica and Sporting CP.

No player has topped Europe’s scoring charts more than Lionel Messi, who won six times during his all-conquering spell with Barcelona. His great contemporary rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, is a four-time winner, which make up half of Portugal’s record eight wins.

Interestingly, the Netherlands have produced the most European Golden Boot winners (four), but only one this century: Roy Makaay in 2002–03, as he scored 29 goals for Deportivo La Coruña in La Liga. Before him, Kees Kist, Wim Kieft and three-time Ballon d’Or winner Marco van Basten also triumphed.

READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE