In 1980 the Ballon d'Or was won by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. That year the dynamic West German forward won the European Championship with his country. The 1979-1980 Bundesliga top scorer, Rummenigge also played a significant part in his club Bayern München winning the German championship that season.
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| Euro 1980: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge tries to go past Eric Gerets |
Rummenigge being named European Footballer of the Year was the outcome of a ballot held among a panel of football journalists organised by the magazine France Football, with one vote coming from each of the following 25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, East Germany, England, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Scotland, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, West Germany and Yugoslavia.
The result was announced in the edition dated December 30th, 1980. Herbert Prohaska was erroneously reported as having received 16 points, after reveiving a fourth place that was in fact awarded to his fellow countryman Bruno Pezzey, who was reported as having received only 3 points.
| Name | Country | Club | Pts. |
|
1. |
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | West Germany | Bayern Munich | 122 |
2. |
Bernd Schuster | West Germany | FC Barcelona | 34 |
3. |
Michel Platini | France | AS Saint Etienne | 33 |
4. |
Wilfried van Moer | Belgium | SK Beveren | 27 |
5. |
Jan Ceulemans | Belgium | Club Brugge | 20 |
6. |
Horst Hrubesch | West Germany | Hamburger SV | 18 |
7. |
Herbert Prohaska | Austria | Internazionale | 14 |
8. |
Liam Brady | Ireland | Juventus | 11 |
| Hansi Müller | West Germany | VfB Stuttgart | 11 | |
10. |
Manfred Kaltz | West Germany | Hamburger SV | 10 |
11. |
Erwin Vandenbergh | Belgium | Lierse SK | 9 |
| Dino Zoff | Italy | Juventus | 9 | |
| Luis Arconada | Spain | Real Sociedad | 9 | |
14. |
Kenny Dalglish | Scotland | Liverpool | 5 |
| Bruno Pezzey | Austria | Eintracht Frankfurt | 5 | |
16. |
Viv Anderson | England | Nottingham Forest | 4 |
| Francesco Graziani | Italy | Torino | 4 | |
| Terry McDermott | England | Liverpool | 4 | |
| Ruud Krol | Holland | Napoli | 4 | |
20. |
Manuel Bento | Portugal | Benfica | 3 |
| Ladislav Vizek | Czechoslovakia | Dukla Prague | 3 | |
22. |
Frank Arnesen | Denmark | Ajax | 2 |
| David O’Leary | Ireland | Arsenal | 2 | |
| Antonin Panenka | Czechoslovakia | Bohemians Prague | 2 | |
| Vladimir Petrovic | Yugoslavia | Red Star Belgrade | 2 | |
| Zbigniew Boniek | Poland | Widzew Lodz | 2 | |
27. |
Giancarlo Antognoni | Italy | Fiorentina | 1 |
| Alessandro Altobelli | Italy | Internazionale | 1 | |
| Trevor Francis | England | Nottingham Forest | 1 | |
| Zdenek Nehoda | Czechoslovakia | Dukla Prague | 1 | |
| Marcel Raducanu | Romania | Steaua Bucharest | 1 | |
| Peter Shilton | England | Nottingham Forest | 1 | |
1979 • European Footballer of the Year • 1981