What is the European Golden Shoe, how does it work and who are the contenders to win it?

The list of European Golden Shoe winners reads like a who's-who of the game's greatest players - plus a few surprise names.

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry are joined by Nikos Machlas, Kevin Phillips and Ciro Immobile as past winners of the award, showing that you do not need to play for the best teams to lift the trophy.

So, what is the European Golden Shoe, how is it decided and who are the contenders to win this year's prize?

What is the European Golden Shoe?

The European Golden Shoe was launched in 1967/68 by French newspaper L'Equipe and is awarded to the top goalscorer in league matches across all of the top divisions on the continent.

It became a little bit more complicated when European Sports Media took over the award ahead of the 1997/98 season, when it was changed to a weighted points-based system.

This meant goals scored by players in Europe's top five leagues - the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 - were worth two points, goals scored in the leagues ranked sixth to 22nd by UEFA were worth 1.5, and those scored in lower-rated leagues were worth one each.

In the event of a tie, the award is handed to the player who featured for the fewest amount of minutes, with further tie-breakers including the number of assists and lowest amount of penalties scored.

Last season's winner was Kylian Mbappe, after the Real Madrid forward scored 31 goals in his first season in the Spanish capital.

As of April 15, the Frenchman is second in this term's points table, with his La Liga tally of 23 goals giving him 46 points, two ahead of Manchester City's Erling Haaland.

Haaland's points total of 44 puts him two in front of a couple of less predictable names, Real Mallorca's Vedat Muriqi and Brentford striker Igor Thiago, who have both scored 21 goals.

But they are all lagging behind Harry Kane, whose tally of 31 Bundesliga goals for Bayern Munich puts him on a huge 62 points.

The England captain has enjoyed a record-breaking season in Bavaria and looks set to regain the award he won in 2023/24, his first campaign after joining from Tottenham Hotspur.

With Bayern eyeing a treble and the Three Lions heading to the World Cup in North America this summer, Kane will hope it is not the only silverware he wins in the next few months.