Harry Kane ahead of Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland in the European Golden Shoe race

Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland are the players at the top of the European Golden Shoe standings.

Records continue to fall across Europe as Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland lead the scoring charts for Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Manchester City, respectively. All three forwards are delivering week after week, turning the Golden Shoe race into one of the season’s main storylines.

Beyond their club objectives in domestic leagues and the Champions League, they are also competing for the European Golden Shoe, awarded to the top league scorer in Europe through a points system.

Kane currently leads with 52 points with many matches remaining, while Mbappé follows with 46 points. Erling Haaland remains close with 44 points thanks to his performances with Manchester City.

European Golden Shoe: The method of scoring points

The standings are expressed in points rather than raw goals because the European Sports Media uses a coefficient system that assigns a multiplier to each league based on its perceived difficulty.

That system gives more weight to goals scored in stronger leagues, so some leagues earn more points per goal than others. In the cases of Kane, Mbappé and Haaland you can also look at goals directly because the Bundesliga, La Liga and Premier League all use a 2x multiplier.

Put simply, Kane has 26 Bundesliga goals for Bayern Munich, Mbappé has 23 La Liga goals for Real Madrid, and Haaland has 22 Premier League goals for Manchester City.

Kane’s biggest obstacle in the race

Using coefficients aims to make comparisons fairer. Still, one major disadvantage for Kane is the Bundesliga’s 18-team format, which means he will play four fewer league matches than the others.

This trio of world-class forwards is followed by some surprising names. Fourth place is currently Igor Thiago of Brentford with 34 points, followed by Vedat Muriqi of Mallorca with 32 points. Vangelis Pavlidis of Benfica has 20 goals and 30 points because the Primeira Liga’s coefficient is 1.5x.