The Ballon d'Or award is an annual football award for the best player from the previous year. From 1995 until 2007 the award was open to all players from around the world, as long as they had been been active at European clubs during that year.

Below are the nominees in the final order after voting for the 1996 award. The winner was Matthias Sammer. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1996 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Matthias Sammer Borussia Dortmund Germany 144
2 Ronaldo PSV Eindhoven / Barcelona Brazil 143
3 Alan Shearer Blackburn Rovers /  Newcastle United England 107
4 Alessandro Del Piero Juventus Italy 69
5 Jürgen Klinsmann Bayern Munich Germany 60
6 Davor Šuker Real Madrid Croatia 38
7 Eric Cantona Manchester United France 24
8 Marcel Desailly Milan France 22
9 Youri Djorkaeff Internazionale France 20
10 Karel Poborský Slavia Prague /  Manchester United Czech Republic 15
11 Nwankwo Kanu Internazionale Nigeria 14
12 George Weah Milan Liberia 13
13 Alen Bokšić Juventus Croatia 12
  Gabriel Batistuta Fiorentina Argentina 12
  Andreas Köpke Marseille Germany 12
16 Fabrizio Ravanelli Middlesbrough Italy 9
  Predrag Mijatović Real Madrid Yugoslavia 9
18 Didier Deschamps Juventus France 8
19 Kubilay Türkyilmaz Grasshopper Switzerland 5
20 David Seaman Arsenal England 4
  Raúl Real Madrid Spain 4
22 Paolo Maldini Milan Italy 3
  Christian Ziege Bayern Munich Germany 3
  Patrik Berger Borussia Dortmund / Liverpool Czech Republic 3
  Trifon Ivanov Rapid Wien Bulgaria 3
26 Radek Bejbl Slavia Prague / Atlético Madrid Czech Republic 2
  Rui Costa Fiorentina Portugal 2
28 Ronald de Boer Ajax Netherlands 1
  Luís Figo Barcelona Portugal 1
  Brian Laudrup Rangers Denmark 1
  Sergi Barcelona Spain 1
  Zinedine Zidane Juventus France 1