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.

Johan Cruyff being presented with one of his three Ballon d'Or awardsJohan Cruyff being presented with one of his three Ballon d'Or awards

Below are the nominees in the final order after voting for the 1973 award. The winner was the Dutch player Johan Cruyff, his second of three Ballon d'Or awards. Cruyff also won in 1971 and 1974. In second place was Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff. Only one goalkeeper has won the award, Russian Lev Yashin in 1963. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1973 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Johan Cruyff Netherlands Ajax / Barcelona 96
2 Dino Zoff Italy Juventus 47
3 Gerd Müller West Germany Bayern Munich 44
4 Franz Beckenbauer West Germany Bayern Munich 30
5 Billy Bremner Scotland Leeds United 22
6 Kazimierz Deyna Poland Legia Warsaw 16
7 Eusébio Portugal Benfica 14
8 Gianni Rivera Italy Milan 12
9 Ralf Edström Sweden Åtvidabergs FF /  PSV Eindhoven 11
  Günter Netzer Germany Borussia Mönchengladbach /  Real Madrid 11
11 Uli Hoeneß West Germany Bayern Munich 8
12 Hristo Bonev Bulgaria Lokomotiv Plovdiv 7
  Giacinto Facchetti Italy Internazionale 7
14 Juan Manuel Asensi Spain Barcelona 5
  Sandro Mazzola Italy Internazionale 5
  Jan Tomaszewski Poland ŁKS Łódź 5
17 Włodzimierz Lubański Poland Górnik Zabrze 4
18 Wolfgang Overath West Germany 1. FC Köln 3
19 Barry Hulshoff Netherlands Ajax 2
  Hans-Jürgen Kreische East Germany Dynamo Dresden 2
  Bobby Moore England West Ham United 2
  Roland Sandberg Sweden Åtvidabergs FF /  1. FC Kaiserslautern 2
23 Vladislav Bogićević Yugoslavia Red Star Belgrade 1
  Dragan Džajić Yugoslavia Red Star Belgrade 1
  Pat Jennings Northern Ireland Tottenham Hotspur 1
  Denis Law Scotland Manchester City 1
  Ivo Viktor Czechoslovakia Dukla Prague 1