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 Year award.

Gerd Müller1970 Ballon d'Or winner Gerd Müller

Below is the final order after voting for the 1970 award. The winner was German champion goal scorer Gerd Müller. After he died In 2021, the Striker of the Year Award was renamed the Gerd Müller Trophy. Müller was the first of many German players to win 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 1970, after a very successful World Cup campaign, Pelé would have won if he was eligible.

See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1970 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Gerd Müller Bayern Munich West Germany 77
2 Bobby Moore West Ham United England 70
3 Gigi Riva Cagliari Italy 65
4 Franz Beckenbauer Bayern Munich West Germany 32
5 Wolfgang Overath 1. FC Köln West Germany 29
6 Dragan Džajić Red Star Belgrade Yugoslavia 24
7 Johan Cruyff Ajax Netherlands 13
8 Gordon Banks Stoke City England 8
  Sandro Mazzola Internazionale Italy 8
10 Rinus Israël Feyenoord Netherlands 7
  Gianni Rivera Milan Italy 7
  Uwe Seeler Hamburger SV West Germany 7
  Albert Shesternyov CSKA Moscow Soviet Union 7
14 Angelo Domenghini Cagliari Italy 4
  Ove Kindvall Feyenoord Sweden 4
  Francis Lee Manchester City England 4
  Willem van Hanegem Feyenoord Netherlands 4
18 Alan Ball Everton England 3
  Terry Cooper Leeds United England 3
  Giacinto Facchetti Internazionale Italy 3
  Geoff Hurst West Ham United England 3
22 Eusébio Benfica Portugal 2
  Josip Skoblar Marseille Yugoslavia 2
24 Cornel Dinu Dinamo București Romania 1
  Jean Djorkaeff Paris Saint-Germain France 1
  Florea Dumitrache Dinamo București Romania 1
  Franz Hasil Feyenoord Austria 1
  Hans-Jürgen Kreische Dynamo Dresden East Germany 1
  Carles Rexach Barcelona Spain 1