Diego Elected Bundesliga Player Of The Year

German Bundesliga players elected Diego as their player of the year for 2006-07 by a wide margin. The Brazilian got nearly a third of all votes (31.4%), followed by Stuttgart's Mario Gomez (12.2%), Leverkusen teammates Bernd Schneider and Theofanis Gekas (10.72% and 9.5%, respectively) and Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (a Ralph Nader-esque 3.8%). I wonder what Rafael van der Vaart, Torsten Frings and Mohamed Zidan--to name just three examples--did to their colleagues to get excluded from the list. You're telling me they weren't as good as Neuer last season? Then you have guys like Philipp Lahm, who is actually on FIFA's shortlist for player of the year, a nomination Bundesliga players obviously don't agree with. Whatever, these things are stupid anyway. Still, I do think it's telling that Diego (rightfully) gets this much respect in Germany. What Brazil's national team coach Dunga has against him is a mystery. I can't help but think that Brazil would have done a bit better in their most recent game (a scoreless draw at Colombia) with Diego in the lineup.