Werder Bremen's Brazilian playmaker Diego, the 21-year-old who joined the team this season from Porto, was voted the Bundesliga's best player for the first half of the 2006-07 season in a poll of fellow players taken by German magazine Kicker.
Kicker reported that 49.6 percent voted for Diego, ahead of his Bremen teammates Miroslav Klose in second (32.7 percent) and Torsten Frings (4.1 percent) who was third.
Striker Klose and Hertha Berlin's Marko Pantelic are the league's top scorers with 10 goals each. Midfielder Diego is fourth with eight.
Bremen has scored a league-leading 47 goals in 17 games and is in first place, ahead of second-place Schalke on goal difference and three points ahead of defending champion Bayern Munich.