aAll eyes are on Europe’s major football leagues, but the unexpected leader in the race for the Golden Boot in 2025-26 is Clemint Olsen, a 35-year-old striker who played for NSI Lunavik and scored 26 goals in 26 games. Olsen leads the standings as the Nordic League applies a lower coefficient (1.5 points per goal), but as they are more senior his numbers at this stage of the season look impressive.
Behind him, the real battle is unfolding. Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane has started his second season in the Bundesliga with 18 goals in 10 games, while Kylian Mbappe, who has already established himself as Real Madrid’s leader, has scored 14 goals in the same number of games. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, on the other hand, hasn’t lost much either, scoring 12 goals in just nine games.
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Mbappe, Kane, Haaland: who is most likely to win the Golden Boot?
Three forwards have already won this award in recent years – Mbappe in 2025, Kane in 2024 and Haaland in 2023 – and everything points to the trophy falling into the hands of one of them again. As the season progresses and goals in Europe’s top leagues are valued at a factor of two points per goal, Olsen’s advantage will diminish significantly.
Mbappe has already shown in his first season at Los Merengues that he can maintain his high goal average of 44 goals in 2024/25, with Harry Kane reaching the same figure on his debut for the German. But Haaland has the historical advantage, with his records of 53, 45 and 48 goals in three seasons at City making him the most consistent and deadly of the trio.
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Although they have yet to reach the astonishing numbers of Lionel Messi’s 73 goals in 2011-12 or Cristiano Ronaldo’s 60 in the same season, the consistency of Mbappé, Haaland and Kane inevitably brings to mind the legendary showdown that defined an era in European football between 2009 and 2018.
This conflict raised competition to an almost inhuman level. Today, the race seems more open, less obsessive and more evenly distributed between different styles of footballers. Mbappe has speed and decisiveness, Kane is a perfect No. 9, and Haaland is a killer who doesn’t need many scoring chances.
The season has only just begun, but there are already signs that the race for the Golden Boot will be close between the three forwards who have dominated European football in recent years.
