Diego Scoops Bundesliga Award

Brazilian midfield maestro Diego has scooped the honour of best player in the Bundesliga for the first half of this season.

The vote, organised by Kicker magazine, saw 275 professional footballers from Germany's top flight have their say.

Claiming 44.9% of all votes, the Werder Bremen star comfortably beat Bayern's French international Franck Ribéry (21.5%) into second spot.

Rafael Van der Vaart of Hamburg notched 16.8% of the votes to finish third, while Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Simon Rolfes polled 4.3% to take the award for best German.

Karlsruhe And Adler Honoured

In other categories, newly-promoted Karlsruhe snached the title of biggest surprise package - they current sit sixth in the table - while Leverkusen youngster René Adler earned the prize for best goalkeeper.

Diego 'Not World Class'

Kicker have also recently released their prestigious player rankings, based on the first half of this season.

While Diego unsurprisingly earned the No.1 rank among the German league's attacking midfielders, the magazine decided against awarding his performances their 'world class' status, terming him only 'international class'.

Luca Toni was named No.1 striker, Rolfes No.1 defensive midfielder and Marcelo Bordon best centre back, but Bayern wide man Ribéry was the only player deemed worthy of 'world class' categorisation in any playing position.

Germans Abroad

As for Germans abroad, Manchester City's Dietmar Hamann was named the best man of this season so far, something that reflects the injuries that have affected Michael Ballack, and Jens Lehmann's and Timo Hildebrand's less than regular presence in the respective Arsenal and Valencia starting XIs.