The 1996 FIFA World Player of the Year award was won by Ronaldo, the youngest player to ever win the award aged just 20.
| Player | Points | |
| 1 | Ronaldo | 329 PSV → Barcelona |
| 2 | George Weah | 140 Milan |
| 3 | Alan Shearer | 123 Blackburn Rovers → Newcastle United |
| 4 | Matthias Sammer | 109 Borussia Dortmund |
| 5 | Jürgen Klinsmann | 54 Bayern Munich |
| 6 | Nwankwo Kanu | 32 Ajax → Internazionale |
| 7 | Paolo Maldini | 25 Milan |
| 8 | Davor Šuker | 24 Sevilla → Real Madrid |
| 9 | Gabriel Batistuta | 19 Fiorentina |
| 10 | Romário | 13 Flamengo → Valencia |
| 11 | Zvonimir Boban | 11 Milan |
| 12 | Kalusha Bwalya | 9 América |
| 13 | Éric Cantona | 9 Manchester United |
| 14 | Roberto Carlos | 8 Internazionale→ Real Madrid |
| 15 | Predrag Mijatović | 8 Valencia → Real Madrid |
| 16 | Giovanni | 7 Santos → Barcelona |
| 17 | Alessandro Del Piero | 6 Juventus |
| 18 | Youri Djorkaeff | 6 Paris Saint-Germain → Internazionale |
| 19 | Karel Poborský | 6 Slavia Prague → Manchester United |
| 20 | Dejan Savićević | 6 Milan |
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