The Ballon d'Or award is an annual football award for the best international player from the previous year. Between 2010 and 2015 the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA Player of the Year awards were merged to create the FIFA Ballon d'Or.

Below are the nominees in the final order after voting for the 2012 award. The winner was Argentinian Lionel Messi, his fourth consecutive Ballon d'Or award. The first six places were for players playing in Spain. See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.

Final order for the men's 2012 Ballon d'Or

Order Player Club Nationality Percent
1 Lionel Messi Barcelona Argentina 41.6
2 Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid Portugal 23.68
3 Andrés Iniesta Barcelona Spain 10.91
4 Xavi Barcelona Spain 4.08
5 Radamel Falcao Atlético Madrid Colombia 3.67
6 Iker Casillas Real Madrid Spain 3.18
7 Andrea Pirlo Juventus Italy 2.66
8 Didier Drogba Chelsea /  Shanghai Shenhua Ivory Coast 2.6
9 Robin van Persie Arsenal /  Manchester United Netherlands 1.45
10 Zlatan Ibrahimović Milan /  Paris Saint-Germain Sweden 1.24
11 Xabi Alonso Real Madrid Spain 1.09
12 Yaya Touré Manchester City Ivory Coast 0.76
13 Neymar Santos Brazil 0.61
14 Mesut Özil Real Madrid Germany 0.41
15 Wayne Rooney Manchester United England 0.39
16 Gianluigi Buffon Juventus Italy 0.35
17 Sergio Agüero Manchester City Argentina 0.3
18 Sergio Ramos Real Madrid Spain 0.22
19 Manuel Neuer Bayern Munich Germany 0.21
20 Sergio Busquets Barcelona Spain 0.2
21 Gerard Piqué Barcelona Spain 0.11
22 Karim Benzema Real Madrid France 0.11
23 Mario Balotelli Manchester City Italy 0.07