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 2006 award. The winner was the Italian Fabio Cannavaro. Cannavaro is one of the few defenders to win the award. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 2006 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Points
1 Fabio Cannavaro Juventus Italy 173
2 Gianluigi Buffon Juventus Italy 124
3 Thierry Henry Arsenal France 121
4 Ronaldinho Barcelona Brazil 73
5 Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid France 71
6 Samuel Eto'o Barcelona Cameroon 67
7 Miroslav Klose Werder Bremen Germany 29
8 Didier Drogba Chelsea Côte d'Ivoire 25
9 Andrea Pirlo Milan Italy 17
10 Jens Lehmann Arsenal Germany 13
11 Deco Barcelona Portugal 11
12 Kaká Milan Brazil 11
13 Franck Ribéry Marseille France 9
14 Gennaro Gattuso Milan Italy 5
15 Patrick Vieira Juventus / Internazionale France 5
16 Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United F.C. Portugal 5
17 Frank Lampard Chelsea England 3
18 Lukas Podolski 1. FC Köln / Bayern Munich Germany 3
19 Carles Puyol Barcelona Spain 3
20 Juninho Lyon Brazil 2
21 Lionel Messi FC Barcelona Argentina 2
22 Luca Toni Fiorentina Italy 2
23 John Terry Chelsea England 2
24 Gianluca Zambrotta Juventus / Barcelona Italy 2
25 Philipp Lahm Bayern Munich Germany 1
26 David Villa Valencia Spain 1