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.

Below are the nominees in the final order after voting for the 1976 award. The winner was the German defender Franz Beckenbauer. Beckenbauer also won in 1972, and is the only defender to win the award twice. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1976 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Franz Beckenbauer Bayern Munich West Germany 91
2 Rob Rensenbrink Anderlecht Netherlands 75
3 Ivo Viktor Dukla Prague Czechoslovakia 52
4 Kevin Keegan Liverpool England 32
5 Michel Platini Nancy France 19
6 Anton Ondruš Slovan Bratislava Czechoslovakia 16
7 Johan Cruyff Barcelona Netherlands 12
  Ivan Ćurković Saint-Étienne Yugoslavia 12
9 Rainer Bonhof Borussia M'Gladbach West Germany 9
  Gerd Müller Bayern Munich West Germany 9
  Marián Masný Slovan Bratislava Czechoslovakia 9
12 Franco Causio Juventus Italy 7
13 Berti Vogts Borussia Mönchengladbach West Germany 6
14 Tibor Nyilasi Ferencváros Hungary 5
15 Roberto Bettega Juventus Italy 4
  Jürgen Croy Sachsenring Zwickau East Germany 4
  Dudu Georgescu Dinamo București Romania 4
  Jaroslav Pollák VSS Košice Czechoslovakia 4
19 Oleg Blokhin Dinamo Kyiv Soviet Union 3
  Joachim Streich 1. FC Magdeburg East Germany 3
21 Gérard Janvion Saint-Étienne France 2
  Dieter Müller 1. FC Köln West Germany 2
  Dominique Rocheteau Saint-Étienne France 2
  Santillana Real Madrid Spain 2
  Benny Wendt Tennis Borussia Berlin Sweden 2
26 Dominique Bathenay Saint-Étienne France 1
  Jupp Heynckes Borussia Mönchengladbach West Germany 1
  Ali Kemal Trabzonspor Turkey 1
  Dino Zoff Juventus Italy 1