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 1997 award. The winner was Ronaldo. The Brazilian Ronaldo is the youngest ever player to win the Ballon d'Or, he was only 21 years and 96 days when he won. Ronaldo was the first player from Brazil to win the award, and also became the first South American winner (he won again in 2002).

See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 1997 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Ronaldo Barcelona /  Internazionale Brazil 222
2 Predrag Mijatović Real Madrid FR Yugoslavia 68
3 Zinedine Zidane Juventus France 63
4 Dennis Bergkamp Arsenal Netherlands 53
5 Roberto Carlos Real Madrid Brazil 47
6 Andreas Möller Borussia Dortmund Germany 40
7 Raúl Real Madrid Spain 35
8 Peter Schmeichel Manchester United Denmark 19
9 Jürgen Kohler Borussia Dortmund Germany 17
10 Matthias Sammer Borussia Dortmund Germany 16
  Christian Vieri Atlético Madrid Italy 16
12 Youri Djorkaeff Internazionale France 15
13 Luis Enrique Barcelona Spain 14
14 Luís Figo Barcelona Portugal 12
15 Gianfranco Zola Chelsea Italy 11
  Krasimir Balakov VfB Stuttgart Bulgaria 11
17 Didier Deschamps Juventus France 10
  Clarence Seedorf Real Madrid Netherlands 10
19 Alessandro Del Piero Juventus Italy 9
  Alan Shearer Newcastle United England 9
  David Beckham Manchester United England 9
22 Fernando Hierro Real Madrid Spain 8
23 Gabriel Batistuta Fiorentina Argentina 7
24 Olaf Thon Schalke 04 Germany 6
25 Juninho Atlético Madrid Brazil 5
  Paulo Sousa Borussia Dortmund Portugal 5
  Lilian Thuram Parma France 5
28 Ryan Giggs Manchester United Wales 4
29 Oliver Bierhoff Udinese Germany 3
  Angelo Peruzzi Juventus Italy 3
  Raí Paris Saint-Germain Brazil 3
32 Victor Ikpeba Monaco Nigeria 2
33 Laurent Blanc Marseille France 1
  Ciro Ferrara Juventus Italy 1
  Rivaldo Barcelona Brazil 1
  Bent Skammelsrud Rosenborg Norway 1