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 1990 award. The winner was Lothar Matthäus.

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 1990 Diego Maradona would have won if he was eligible.

See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1990 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Lothar Matthäus Internazionale Germany 137
2 Salvatore Schillaci Juventus Italy 84
3 Andreas Brehme Internazionale Germany 68
4 Paul Gascoigne Tottenham Hotspur England 43
5 Franco Baresi Milan Italy 37
6 Enzo Scifo Auxerre Belgium 12
  Jürgen Klinsmann Internazionale Germany 12
8 Roberto Baggio Fiorentina / Juventus Italy 8
9 Frank Rijkaard Milan Netherlands 7
10 Guido Buchwald VfB Stuttgart Germany 6
11 Jean-Pierre Papin Marseille France 3
12 Rafael Martín Vázquez Real Madrid / Torino Spain 2
  Paul McGrath Aston Villa Republic of Ireland 2
  Robert Prosinečki Red Star Belgrade Yugoslavia 2
  Des Walker Nottingham Forest England 2
  Walter Zenga Internazionale Italy 2
  Dragan Stojković Red Star Belgrade Yugoslavia 2
    Marseille    
18 John Barnes Liverpool England 1
  Michael Laudrup Barcelona Denmark 1
  Gary Lineker Tottenham Hotspur England 1
  David Platt Aston Villa England 1
  Rudi Völler Roma Germany 1
  Chris Waddle Marseille England 1