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 2003 award. The winner was Czech player Pavel Nedvěd. Nedvěd is officially the first Czech player to win the Ballon d'Or, though the 1962 winner Josef Masopust was born in Czechoslovakia, in an area which now part of the Czech Republic.

See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 2003 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Pavel Nedvěd Juventus Czech Republic 190
2 Thierry Henry Arsenal France 128
3 Paolo Maldini Milan Italy 123
4 Andriy Shevchenko Milan Ukraine 67
5 Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid France 64
6 Ruud van Nistelrooy Manchester United Netherlands 61
7 Raúl Real Madrid Spain 32
8 Roberto Carlos Real Madrid Brazil 27
9 Gianluigi Buffon Juventus Italy 19
10 David Beckham Manchester United /  Real Madrid England 17
11 Ronaldo Real Madrid Brazil 11
12 Henrik Larsson Celtic Sweden 6
13 Alessandro Del Piero Juventus Italy 4
  Dida Milan Brazil 4
  Roy Makaay Deportivo La Coruña /  Bayern Munich Netherlands 4
  Alessandro Nesta Milan Italy 4
  Deco Porto Portugal 4
18 Nihat Kahveci Real Sociedad Turkey 3
  Francesco Totti Roma Italy 3
20 Michael Ballack Bayern Munich Germany 2
  Zlatan Ibrahimović Ajax Sweden 2
22 Filippo Inzaghi Milan Italy 1
  Jan Koller Borussia Dortmund Czech Republic 1
  Adrian Mutu Parma /  Chelsea Romania 1
  Ronaldinho Paris Saint-Germain /  Barcelona Brazil 1
  Francesco Toldo Internazionale Italy 1