European Golden Shoe 2023/24: Final standings as Kane dethrones Haaland

Carlo Garganese

• 27 May 2024 11:20 BST
• 13 min read

There is an impressive list of names who have previously triumphed in the European Golden Shoe award and everything was to play for once again in the 2023/24 season.

Manchester City attacker Erling Haaland won the prestigious prize for the first time last season. His 36-goal Premier League campaign set a new record in England's top-flight and saw off his leading scoring rivals on the continent too.

His success ended the hopes of Robert Lewandowski, who was bidding to win a third straight European Golden Boot crown. The Barcelona star was among the contenders again this year.

After his transfer saga ended in a move to Bayern Munich, Harry Kane was bidding to score the most goals in Europe during 2023/24. He netted 30 top-flight goals for a struggling Tottenham team last season and is one of the continent's most consistent goalscorers, with a magnificent record in the Premier League.

Kylian Mbappe was another attacker facing an uncertain future as the season started.

He has come close to winning this award before and as of the start of the year he had scored 27 or more goals in four of his last five Ligue 1 seasons with Paris Saint-Germain. He is yet to win the European Golden Shoe title, but was seen as likely to be prominent in the standings once more.

Premier League top scorers: Will Haaland retain the Golden Boot?

Alexandre Lacazette and Victor Osimhen were other candidates from last season who were set to be back for more in the 2023/24 campaign, while Mohamed Salah hoped to bounce back from what was a quiet season, at least by his high standards.

Not all of the regular contenders were going to be in the running. At the start of last season, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema were all considered candidates to win the European Golden Boot.

MORE: Saudi Pro League top scorers

But with all three of those greats now playing outside of the continent, a new era has begun.

Surprise contenders have often emerged in the past as well, with former Golden Shoe winner Ciro Immobile a regular challenger given his remarkable goalscoring consistency for Lazio.

READ MORE: Who has the most assists in Europe?

This page was updated throughout the 2023/24 season with regular updates on the European Golden Shoe standings, and the final result can now be viewed below.

European Golden Shoe Standings

Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe and Lautaro Martinez were among the leading contenders in the race to win the European Golden Shoe title for the 2023/24.

But the battle to win the European Golden Boot has ultimately been won by Bayern Munich star Harry Kane, who has held top spot since overtaking the man who led the standings for many of the early weeks of the season, Serhou Guirassy.

Kane scored a stunning 36 goals in just 32 Bundesliga matches, giving him the most goals in Europe’s top five leagues.

A group of elite strikers were chasing Kane, who scored his third hat-trick of the season as Bayern thrashed Dortmund 4-0 in Der Klassiker in November and added a fourth treble in his team's 8-1 thrashing of Mainz on March 9.

The former Tottenham striker has also netted doubles against Heidenheim, Stuttgart, RB Leipzig and Frankfurt as his fine form in the Bundesliga powered him towards a first Golden Shoe crown. Kane's individual success came despite his team struggling domestically this season as Leverkusen stormed to the title.

Kane remained top over the final weeks of the season despite a back injury ruling him out of Bayern's final Bundesliga matches, having already built a winning total in this award.

A dramatic period of goals for Europe's leading attackers meant there was some major movement in the positions behind Kane.

Since the early stages of the season, Martinez and Mbappe were the fastest risers in the standings, ensuring Kane had more than just Guirassy to contend with.

Inter forward Martinez finished 12 goals off the lead, while France star Mbappe was also one of the closest challengers, albeit still nine goals behind Kane after his latest run of Ligue 1 goals for PSG, including a hat-trick in the 6-2 win at Montpellier on March 17.

The leading nine players in the standings all have at least 22 goals in a competitive European Golden Boot battle, though Kane was the first to reach the 20, 25, 30 and 35-goal marks and proved too tough to catch.

Defending champion Haaland scored 27 Premier League strikes for Manchester City, ensuring he sits towards the top of the standings. Despite being dethroned, he made a strong attempt in the race to score the most goals in Europe.

Last season's award winner netted twice for Man City as they thumped Burnley 3-0 on the opening night of the new Premier League season.

He did not strike when Man City played Newcastle but scored a thumping header against Sheffield United in Matchday 3, with the relief on his face clear after he had earlier missed a penalty.

Haaland then scored a ruthless hat-trick in the 5-1 win over Fulham and netted again versus West Ham and Nottingham Forest, with City the only Premier League side with a 100% record through six games until they suffered a shock loss at Wolves, which was followed up by another defeat against title rivals Arsenal.

The Norway star and his team returned to form by defeating Brighton 2-1, with Haaland scoring in the first half. And he netted a double in the Manchester derby as Man City ruthlessly won 3-0 against Man Utd at Old Trafford, before scoring another brace in the unbelievable 4-4 draw at Chelsea.

Haaland's struck again in the 1-1 draw between Man City and Liverpool. He did not score in the two matches he played after that and then suffered a foot injury, so fell further behind during the mid-season period. Salah had moved level with him in the EPL scoring standings, but two goals in City's win over Everton on February 10 and a late winner against Brentford 10 days later kept the Norway striker's hopes alive in this competition.

After netting in the 3-1 derby win over rivals Man Utd on March 3, Haaland scored three times in April as Man City defeated Crystal Palace, Luton Town and Nottingham Forest as the Premier League title race reached a pivotal stage. And he surged up the standings with a stunning four-goal haul as Man City beat Wolves 5-1 on May 4.

The Bundesliga, meanwhile, started with a bang as champions Bayern earned an emphatic 4-0 win away to Werder Bremen to kick off the season.

Leroy Sane scored twice and new signing Kane opened his Bayern account on his Bundesliga debut to make it a great night for Thomas Tuchel's side.

Kane was at it again on MD2, marking his first home appearance with a double as Bayern beat Augsburg 3-1, while his first hat-trick for his new team soon arrived too as they recorded a fantastic 7-0 win over Bochum.

Another Kane hat-trick came as Bayern thrashed Darmstadt in October, with that treble including a stunning strike from inside his own half. The England captain ended up with 36 goals and 72 Golden Shoe points.

Kane was the first player in Europe to reach 50 points this season.

Guirassy netted 28 times in only 28 games in Germany's top-flight this season, so he remained close behind. He was the second player after Kane to make it to 50 Golden Shoe points.

The Stuttgart forward netted two hat-tricks in 2023/24, striking trebles against Mainz and Wolfsburg to propel himself towards the top of the standings.

On March 2, Guirassy again tormented Wolfsburg by scoring a double against them to help earn Stuttgart a key 3-2 win before grabbing further goals against Union Berlin, Hoffenheim, Heidenheim, Dortmund, Frankfurt and Augsburg. He ended the campaign with two goals against Gladbach.

Bundesliga trio Kane, Guirassy and Lois Openda were players in Germany to enjoy superb scoring seasons.

Mbappe reached 27 Ligue 1 goals for the campaign, his last with the club. He made a flying start for PSG early in the season until coming off with an injury in the win against rivals Marseille in September and enduring two subsequent goalless outings.

But after a brief dip the striker has been on consistent goalscoring form with 20 goals since October 21.

Amid an uncertain summer, Mbappe got off the mark for PSG after coming off the bench against Toulouse, winning and scoring a penalty and has impressed once again.

And he followed that up the next week with a fine performance in his first Ligue 1 start of the season, scoring twice in a good 3-1 win over Lens for the French champions.

His other doubles have followed against Lyon, Nice and Brest before he scored a fine hat-trick in the 3-0 win over Reims. Mbappe then got another double as PSG defeated Metz on December 20 and reached 20 goals for the season on February 2 against Strasbourg, the second player to hit that milestone after Kane. His latest brace came in the victory over Lorient.

Monaco star Wissam Ben Yedder, who has regularly appeared as a contender in the Golden Shoe standings over recent seasons, had 16 goals, but no one got close to Mbappe in Ligue 1.

In Italy, Inter forward Martinez has produced an impressive campaign in Serie A and quite promptly followed Kane and Mbappe in reaching 20 goals in February. He followed up with four more, putting him eight clear of Dusan Vlahovic in the Serie A scoring standings and a huge nine ahead of Victor Osimhen.

Martinez came off the bench to score four goals in a stunning Serie A display for Inter against Salernitana in September.

Real Madrid midfielder Bellingham made a brilliant start to life in La Liga, scoring 19 goals and adding six assists. He had a goal and an assist to inspire Real Madrid's comeback 3-2 win over Almeria in January before netting a crucial double as his team thumped title rivals Girona 4-0. One of the England star's most recent goals was the winner in El Clasico.

Alvaro Morata has also been in fine goalscoring form. His double in the derby win over Real Madrid and hat-trick in the dramatic 4-3 defeat to Girona helped him up to 15 for the campaign so far, while his Atletico team-mate Antoine Griezmann was flying as well, having reached 16 strikes, helped by hat-tricks away to Celta Vigo and Getafe.

Both those players also impressed in this season's UEFA Champions League before Atletico were eliminated in the quarter-finals..

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski got up to 19 goals, matching Bellingham and now ahead of Griezmann and Morata after a strong finish to the season. But it is Artem Dovbyk who led the scoring standings in Spain, finishing with 24 goals after a memorable season for Girona.

It was an impressive campaign for many of Europe's top scorers. For a while we had a surprise name sitting at the top of the Golden Shoe charts, but now Kane can celebrate a first title.

Who won the European Golden Shoe - Previous Winners

Lionel Messi has won the most European Golden Shoe titles.

The Inter Miami forward has triumphed on six occasions. His last success was in 2018/19 for Barcelona, and he did not win the award with PSG.

Cristiano Ronaldo is his closest challenger with four career wins, though the Al-Nassr attacker has not come out on top since 2014/15 when he was at Real Madrid, with his most recent spell at Man Utd not hitting the heights of his first.

Robert Lewandowski’s triumph in 2021/22 means there are 10 players who have two Golden Shoe awards each, a list that also includes Luis Suarez and Thierry Henry.

Who is the top scorer in the Champions League?

Messi holds the record for most goals and points in a season as well. He remarkably scored 50 goals in 2011/12, earning himself 100 points.

Ronaldo has come closest to breaking that, scoring 48 goals for 96 points when he last won the crown in 2014/15.

Argentina forward Messi is the only player in European Golden Shoe history to win the title three years in a row, doing so from 2016/17 until 2018/19.

Ronaldo, though, is one of only four players to have won the title with different clubs. The others are Luis Suarez, Diego Forlan and Mario Jardel.

Lewandowski became the first Bundesliga winner since 1972 with the first of his two triumphs in the 2020/21 season, with his remarkable 41 goals from 29 games for Bayern being the best goal tally since 2015.

That came after Ciro Immobile won the 2019/20 European Golden Shoe, scoring 36 goals for Lazio in a tremendous Serie A season.

It was his first title, with the striker becoming the first Serie A player to have the most goals in Europe since Francesco Totti triumphed for Lazio's rivals Roma in 2006/07.

Ligue 1 has not produced a winner since Josip Skoblar in 1971, despite the likes of Messi, Mbappe and Zlatan Ibrahimovic having spells playing in the league.

Premier League: Most assists and other records for EPL goals created

Success for Erling Haaland in 2022/23 gave the Norway star his first European Golden Boot title, with Kane now dethroning him this year.

Haaland was the first Premier League winner since Suarez achieved the feat with Liverpool in 2013/14.

What are the European Golden Shoe rules and weightings?

Only league goals are eligible for the European Golden Shoe, with each strike earning points in a weighted system depending on the quality of league.

The five elite leagues - Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 - all carry a weighting of 2, meaning that a player will be awarded two points for every goal they score in these competitions.

Premier League table: What are the latest standings?

For the leagues ranked sixth to 21 in Uefa's coefficients rankings - which includes the top-flights in Portugal and Netherlands - goals scored are given a weighting of 1.5, and goals scored in a league outside the top 21 are given a weighting of 1.

That was not always the case in the European Golden Shoe. From 1968 until 1991, the award simply went to the highest goalscorer on the continent, regardless of the strength of league.

Awards were not initially handed out between 1991 until 1996, when the new system came into force. Since then, only two players playing outside what were the five highest-ranked leagues at the time have ever won the Golden Shoe - Henrik Larsson (2000/01) and Mario Jardel (2001/02).

Manchester United: Top scorers and key fixtures

The Golden Shoe has been tied in the past, most recently when Suarez and Ronaldo shared the honour in 2013/14. Going forward, though, the award will be given to the player who has played the fewest minutes if two of them end up on the same number of points.

This page covers the 2023/24 European Golden Shoe race. All the details from the 2022/23 season can be found here.