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 2005 award. The clear winner was Brazilian midfielder Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho was the third Brazilian to win the award after Rivaldo (1999) and Ronaldo (1997, 2002). See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 2005 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Ronaldinho Barcelona Brazil 225
2 Frank Lampard Chelsea England 148
3 Steven Gerrard Liverpool England 142
4 Thierry Henry Arsenal France 41
5 Andriy Shevchenko Milan Ukraine 33
6 Paolo Maldini Milan Italy 23
7 Adriano Internazionale Brazil 22
8 Zlatan Ibrahimović Juventus Sweden 21
9 Kaká Milan Brazil 19
10 Samuel Eto'o Barcelona Cameroon 18
11 John Terry Chelsea England 18
12 Juninho Lyon Brazil 15
13 Claude Makélélé Chelsea France 8
14 Juan Román Riquelme Villarreal Argentina 7
15 Petr Čech Chelsea Czech Republic 7
16 Didier Drogba Chelsea Ivory Coast 7
17 Michael Ballack Bayern Munich Germany 7
18 Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid France 5
19 Gianluigi Buffon Juventus Italy 4
20 Jamie Carragher Liverpool England 3
21 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United Portugal 3
22 Michael Essien Lyon / Chelsea Ghana 2
23 Luis García Liverpool Spain 1
24 Pavel Nedvěd Juventus Czech Republic 1