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 1986 award. The winner was Soviet player Igor Belanov, who played for Dynamo Kyiv. Belanov was born in Ukraine, but at that time it was part of the Soviet Union.

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 1986 Diego Maradona would have won if he was eligible.

See the list of every Ballon d'Or winner.

Final order for the men's 1986 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Igor Belanov Dynamo Kyiv Soviet Union 84
2 Gary Lineker Everton / Barcelona England 62
3 Emilio Butragueño Real Madrid Spain 59
4 Manuel Amoros Monaco France 22
  Preben Elkjær Hellas Verona Denmark 22
6 Ian Rush Liverpool Wales 20
  Oleksandr Zavarov Dynamo Kyiv Soviet Union 20
8 Helmuth Duckadam Steaua București Romania 10
  Marco van Basten Ajax Netherlands 10
10 Alessandro Altobelli Internazionale Italy 9
11 Jean-Marie Pfaff Bayern Munich Belgium 8
  Michel Platini Juventus France 8
13 Jan Ceulemans Club Brugge Belgium 7
  Søren Lerby Monaco Denmark 7
15 Morten Olsen Anderlecht /  1. FC Köln Denmark 6
16 Rinat Dasayev Spartak Moscow Soviet Union 5
17 Luis Fernández Paris Saint-Germain /  RC Paris France 4
  Paulo Futre Porto Portugal 4
  Ruud Gullit PSV Eindhoven Netherlands 4
  Harald Schumacher 1. FC Köln West Germany 4
21 Kenny Dalglish Liverpool Scotland 3
  Jean Tigana Bordeaux France 3
  Pavlo Yakovenko Dynamo Kyiv Soviet Union 3
24 Karlheinz Förster VfB Stuttgart / Marseille West Germany 2
  Lothar Matthäus Bayern Munich West Germany 1
26 Michael Laudrup Juventus Denmark 1
  Rudi Völler Werder Bremen West Germany 1