The Ballon d'Or award is an annual football award for the best player from the previous year. Up until 1995 it was awarded only to football players from Europe and was generally known as the European Footballer of the Yearaward.

Alfredo Di StéfanoAlfredo Di Stéfano

Below are the nominees in the final order after voting for the 1959 award. The winner was Spanish player Alfredo Di Stéfano who played for Real Madrid. It was Di Stéfano's second win (he also won in 1957). He was born in Argentina, but became a Spanish citizen in 1956, thereby becoming eligible for the award.

As only European players were eligible for the Ballon d'Or at this time, there may have been players outside of Europe deserving of the best player of the year award. To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Ballon d'Or in 2016, the results were reevaluated, and it was determined that in 1959 Pelé would have won if he was eligible.

See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1959 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Alfredo Di Stéfano Real Madrid Spain 80
2 Raymond Kopa Real Madrid / Reims France 42
3 John Charles Juventus Wales 24
4 Luis Suárez Barcelona Spain 22
5 Agne Simonsson Örgryte IS Sweden 20
6 Lajos Tichy Budapest Honvéd Hungary 18
7 Ferenc Puskás Real Madrid Hungary 16
8 Francisco Gento Real Madrid Spain 12
9 Helmut Rahn Rot-Weiss Essen /  1. FC Köln West Germany 11
10 Horst Szymaniak Wuppertaler SV / Karlsruher SC West Germany 8
11 Lev Yashin Dynamo Moscow Soviet Union 7
12 Yuriy Voynov Dynamo Kyiv Soviet Union 5
13 Dezső Bundzsák Vasas Hungary 4
  Gyula Grosics Tatabánya Hungary 4
  Ivan Kolev CDNA Sofia Bulgaria 4
  Nils Liedholm Milan Sweden 4
17 Titus Buberník ČH Bratislava Czechoslovakia 3
  Just Fontaine Reims France 3
  Georgi Naydenov CDNA Sofia Bulgaria 3
20 Flórián Albert Ferencváros Hungary 2
  Uwe Seeler Hamburger SV West Germany 2
  Joan Segarra Barcelona Spain 2
23 János Göröcs Újpest Hungary 1
  Ken Jones Scunthorpe United Wales 1
  Roger Marche RC Paris France 1
  Antoni Ramallets Barcelona Spain 1