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 1981 award. The winner was Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1981 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge Bayern Munich West Germany 106
2 Paul Breitner Bayern Munich West Germany 64
3 Bernd Schuster Barcelona West Germany 39
4 Michel Platini Saint-Étienne France 36
5 Oleg Blokhin Dinamo Kyiv Soviet Union 14
6 Dino Zoff Juventus Italy 13
7 Ramaz Shengelia Dinamo Tbilisi Soviet Union 10
8 Alexsandr Chivadze Dinamo Tbilisi Soviet Union 9
9 Liam Brady Juventus Republic of Ireland 7
  John Wark Ipswich Town Scotland 7
11 David Kipiani Dinamo Tbilisi Soviet Union 6
  András Törőcsik Újpest Hungary 6
  Zbigniew Boniek Widzew Łódź Poland 6
  Maxime Bossis Nantes France 6
  Bruno Pezzey Eintracht Frankfurt Austria 6
16 Horst Hrubesch Hamburger SV West Germany 5
  Ruud Krol Napoli Netherlands 5
  Vladimir Petrović Red Star Belgrade Yugoslavia 5
19 Zlatko Vujovic Hajduk Split Yugoslavia 4
  Trevor Brooking West Ham United England 4
21 Giancarlo Antognoni Fiorentina Italy 3
  Jan Ceulemans Club Brugge Belgium 3
  Kenny Dalglish Liverpool Scotland 3
  Bryan Robson Manchester United England 3
  Frank Stapleton Manchester United Ireland 3
  Wilfried Van Moer Beveren Belgium 3
  Luis Arconada Real Sociedad Spain 3
28 Grzegorz Lato Lokeren Poland 2
  Tibor Nyilasi Ferencváros Hungary 2
  Wlodzimierz Smolarek Widzew Łódź Poland 2
  Frans Thijssen Ipswich Town Netherlands 2
32 António Oliveira Sporting CP Portugal 1
  Uli Stielike Real Madrid West Germany 1
  Jesús Zamora Real Sociedad Spain 1