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 1982 award. The winner was Paolo Rossi. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1982 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Paolo Rossi Juventus Italy 115
2 Alain Giresse[notes 1] Bordeaux France 64
3 Zbigniew Boniek Juventus Poland 53
4 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge[notes 2] Bayern Munich West Germany 51
5 Bruno Conti Roma Italy 48
6 Rinat Dasayev Spartak Moscow Soviet Union 17
7 Pierre Littbarski 1. FC Köln West Germany 10
8 Dino Zoff Juventus Italy 9
9 Michel Platini Juventus France 5
10 Bernd Schuster Barcelona West Germany 4
11 Giancarlo Antognoni Fiorentina Italy 3
12 Bruno Pezzey Eintracht Frankfurt Austria 2
  Gaetano Scirea Juventus Italy 2
  Eric Gerets Standard Liège Belgium 2
15 Paul Breitner Bayern Munich West Germany 1
  Torbjörn Nilsson IFK Göteborg Sweden 1
  Walter Schachner Cesena Austria 1
  Marco Tardelli Juventus Italy 1
  Marius Trésor Bordeaux France 1