With club football returning to the fore after the first international break of the year, the final stretch of the 2024-25 domestic season lays before us.

So now seems as pertinent time as any to check in on the Golden Boot races as they stand across Europe’s top five leagues.

With goals aplenty raining in all over the continent this season, the battles to be crowned the top marksman in the Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 are hotting up. A whole host of names — some very familiar, some not — are in contention as we hurtle toward the climax of the campaign.

Here we examine which players are in contention the 2024-25 Golden Boot trophies in the top divisions of England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, how those respective races are panning out, what it might take to separate them should a tie ensue and, most importantly, what the actual trophy they will win is like.

Premier League

Top 5 goal scorers

1. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool): 27 goals in 29 games
2. Erling Haaland (Manchester City): 21 goals in 28 games
3. Alexander Isak (Newcastle United): 19 goals in 25 games
4. Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest): 18 goals in 29 games
5. Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford): 15 goals in 29 games

The race

Haaland has dominated the Premier League Golden Boot stakes since joining Man City in the summer of 2022, hoovering up the past two awards. However, Haaland’s relatively slow season (by his own inimitable standards) has seen three-time winner Salah return to pole position. With Salah six goals clear, and Liverpool cantering to the title with less than 10 games left to play, it looks like the Egypt forward is favourite to take the prize for a fourth time.

Isak just two goals from equalling his highest league goal haul with Newcastle, and Nottingham Forest target man Chris Wood continues to defy expectations by maintaining the highest shot conversion rate of any striker in the Premier League this season — the New Zealand international has scored with 34% of his chances.

Brentford striker Mbuemo has also hit a resurgent vein of form this campaign. He has already matched the highest league goal return of his career by equalling the 15 goals he netted (in 42 games) during his debut season for the Bees, in the Championship in 2019-20.

Tie-breaker

There is no tie-breaker in the Premier League Golden Boot race. In the event that multiple players finish the season as joint-top goal scorers, the accolade is simply shared among them with each player receiving their own individual trophy. The Golden Boot has been shared on five occasions (including three-way ties on three occasions) since it was first presented in 1992-93.

The trophy

The award itself is literally a golden football boot, which is affixed atop a rectangular black resin plinth carrying the Premier League logo and the winner’s name.

LaLiga

Top 5 goal scorers

1. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona): 22 goals in 26 games
2. Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid): 20 goals in 26 games
3. Ante Budimir (Osasuna): 15 goals in 27 games
4. Raphinha (Barcelona): 13 goals in 27 games
5. Oihan Sancet (Athletic Club): 13 goals in 21 games

The race

Two players are vying for the top-scorer plaudits in LaLiga this season with Barcelona’s veteran goal-poacher Lewandowski just two strikes ahead of Mbappé in his debut season at Real Madrid.

The 36-year-old Lewandowski certainly has the pedigree, having previously claimed the award with Barça in 2022-23. However, he was outgunned last season by Ukraine international Artem Dovbyk, who scored 24 league goals for Girona in his maiden campaign in Spain before quickly departing for AS Roma.

The rest of the pack is some way behind Clásico rivals Lewandowski and Mbappé in the standings, though Budimir’s impressive strike rate for mid-table Osasuna certainly deserves credit. The Croatia international has become the club’s joint-top scorer of all time in the space of just 4½ seasons.

Tie-breaker

While the award has been shared on several occasions in the past, the modern-day “Pichichi” trophy uses a tie-breaker approach to ordain a single winner. If two or more players score the same amount of goals in a single league season, then assists and minutes played are used to separate them.

The trophy

While not officially recognised by LaLiga, the award for the top scorer in the Spanish top flight is the “Pichichi trophy” (named after former Athletic Club legend Rafael ‘Pichichi’ Moreno) and has been handed out by newspaper Marca since the 1950s. The trophy is a large engraved silver cup with prominent, squared-off handles that stands on a round black wooden base.

Bundesliga

Top 5 goal scorers

1. Harry Kane (Bayern Munich): 21 goals in 24 games
2. Patrick Schick (Bayer Leverkusen): 17 goals in 23 games
3. Omar Marmoush (Eintracht Frankfurt): 15 goals in 17 games
4. Tim Kleindienst (Borussia Monchengladbach): 15 goals in 25 games
5. Jonathan Burkardt (Mainz): 15 goals in 22 games

The race

Having amassed 36 goals in his debut Bundesliga season, Kane is once again on course to finish top scorer in the German top division. The England captain has led the way since scoring three hat tricks in his first 11 league games of 2024-25. After a slow start, Schick has hit form in the second half of the season to keep pace with Kane, while the fine domestic form of Kleindiesnt and Burkardt earned both forwards Germany call-ups of late.

One player who won’t add to his Bundesliga tally this campaign is Marmoush, whose 15 goals in 17 games for Frankfurt was enough to seal him a €70 million transfer to Manchester City in the January window.

Tie-breaker

There is no tie-breaker in the Bundesliga, with the top-scorer award having been regularly shared throughout its history — the most recent occasion coming in 2022-23 when Niclas Füllkrug of Werder Bremen and Christopher Nkunku of RB Leipzig scored 16 goals apiece.

The trophy

Much like in Spain, the award for the Bundesliga’s top scorer has actually been administered by kicker magazine since 1966. It is formally known as the “Torjägerkanone” (which translates as the “Goal Hunter” award) and takes the form of a scale model of a bronze cannon which is affixed to a wooden base plate.

Serie A

Top 5 goal scorers

1. Mateo Retegui (Atalanta): 22 goals in 27 games
2. Moise Kean (Fiorentina): 15 goals in 26 games
3. Ademola Lookman (Atalanta): 13 goals in 23 games
4. Marcus Thuram (Inter Milan): 13 goals in 28 games
5. Lautaro Martínez (Inter Milan): 11 goals in 27 games

The race

Retegui is out on his own in the race for the Serie A top-scorer crown this campaign after pitching in with a consistent haul of goals for Atalanta in his debut season with the club. The 25-year-old is way ahead of the chasing pack, which includes two ex-Everton players in Kean and Lookman.

Fifth-place Martínez is the reigning “Capocannoniere” (Top Shooter) winner having rattled in 24 league goals for Inter last year, but the Argentina international is highly unlikely to defend his crown this season having found himself a long way off the pace despite the Nerazzurri being top of the table.

Tie-breaker

There is no tie-breaker in Serie A with the award shared between any players who finish top of the scoring chart.

The trophy

The “Paolo Rossi Award” is still colloquially referred to as the “Capocannoniere,” but was renamed in honour of Azzurri great Rossi following the former Italy striker’s death in 2021.

Awarded by the Italian Footballers’ Association, the physical trophy has taken several forms in the past, but the current incarnation is a large glass plate in the shape of a football with a silver base and a central plaque engraved with the players’ name, club and goal count.

Ligue 1

Top 5 goal scorers

1. Ousmane Dembélé (Paris Saint-Germain): 21 goals in 24 games
2. Mason Greenwood (Marseille): 15 goals in 26 games
3. Jonathan David (Lille): 14 goals in 24 games
4. Bradley Barcola (Paris Saint-Germain): 13 goals in 26 games
5. Evann Guessand (Nice): 11 goals in 26 games

The race

Despite losing Mbappé to Real Madrid last summer, PSG have continued to dominate Ligue 1, with Dembélé picking up the goal-scoring slack with relish. Indeed, the nimble winger scored just three league goals for the club last season, but a remarkable upturn in form and a new more-central position has seen him weigh in with the biggest goal haul of his professional career across all competitions in 2024-25.

The trophy

There isn’t a formal top scorer award in France’s top division, with winners instead usually given broader recognition as part of the annual “Trophées UNFP du Football” gala staged in Paris at the end of every season. The most prestigious of the UNFP awards is the Ligue 1 Player of the Year, which was won by Mbappé five times in a row between 2019 and 2024. Unsurprisingly, he was also the league’s top scorer in each of those seasons.