Having made a fantastic start to the 2026-27 campaign, Raphinha has emerged as one of the most fearsome strikers in Europe this season after moving in from the wing to play in a central role for Barcelona. In fact, Barça's club captain and makeshift center forward is firmly among the favorites to win the 2026-27 European Golden Shoe, which is awarded to the continent's top marksman every season. Occupying the spot formerly occupied by two-time Golden Shoe winner Robert Lewandowski, who left Barça to join MLS side Chicago Fire over the summer, Raphinha has already racked up 12 goals in just seven La Liga games including back-to-back hat tricks in his past two outings, scored just four days apart.

It might be early days, but the Brazil international has so far comfortably outscored high-profile rivals such as Erling Haaland (five goals in five games), Kylian Mbappé (seven in seven) and last season's Golden Shoe winner Harry Kane (three goals in four games) at the first international break of the season. That said, there is currently one player above Raphinha in the race to claim the 2026-27 Golden Shoe award. The one player across all of Europe's top divisions who is beating Raphinha in the scramble for the 2026-27 Golden Shoe is Joseph Ede Oloko.

The striker has been scoring goals at a phenomenal rate for in Latvia's top flight, the Virslīga, firstly on loan at Tukums 2000 and then back at parent club FK Liepāja. Oloko has netted 25 goals in 27 league games to top the scoring charts in Latvia. The 25-year-old also has five more games to add to his season tally with the league set to conclude in early November.

His goal-scoring exploits this year have earned him a first senior callup for Benin in this international break. While he may have scored more than double the amount of goals, Oloko is only a hair's breadth ahead of Raphinha in the Golden Shoe ranking thanks to the points-based coefficient system that is used to calculate the leaderboard. In fact, he's leading the way by just a single point.