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.

One of Marco van Basten's Ballon d'Or, on display at the Mondo Milan MuseumOne of Marco van Basten's Ballon d'Or, on display at the Mondo Milan Museum

Below are the nominees in the final order after voting for the 1989 award. The winner was Dutch player Marco van Basten, the second of his three awards. He also won in 1988 and 1992. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1989 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Marco van Basten AC Milan Netherlands 119
2 Franco Baresi Milan Italy 80
3 Frank Rijkaard Milan Netherlands 43
4 Lothar Matthäus Internazionale West Germany 24
5 Peter Shilton Derby County England 22
6 Dragan Stojković Red Star Belgrade Yugoslavia 19
7 Ruud Gullit Milan Netherlands 16
8 Gheorghe Hagi Steaua București Romania 11
  Jürgen Klinsmann Internazionale West Germany 11
10 Jean-Pierre Papin Marseille France 10
  Michel Preud'homme Mechelen Belgium 10
12 Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko Dynamo Kyiv Soviet Union 6
13 Míchel Real Madrid Spain 5
14 Andreas Brehme Internazionale West Germany 3
  Paulo Futre Atlético Madrid Portugal 3
  Karl-Heinz Riedle Werder Bremen West Germany 3
17 John Barnes Liverpool England 2
  Packie Bonner Celtic Republic of Ireland 2
  Glenn Hysén Liverpool Sweden 2
  Oleh Kuznetsov Dynamo Kyiv Soviet Union 2
  Andreas Möller Borussia Dortmund West Germany 2
  Julio Salinas Barcelona Spain 2
23 Thomas Häßler 1. FC Köln West Germany 1
  Ronald Koeman Barcelona Netherlands 1
  Robby Langers Nice Luxembourg 1
  Gary Lineker Tottenham Hotspur England 1
  Paolo Maldini Milan Italy 1
  Theo Snelders Aberdeen Netherlands 1
  Gianluca Vialli Sampdoria Italy 1
  Oleksandr Zavarov Juventus Soviet Union 1