Russian Football Premier League together with the Football Union of Russia and the Sport-Express newspaper announced the best player 2016 in Russia. The Russian National team and FC Krasnodar forward Fedor Smolov got the title.

WHO VOTED

1) 16 coaches (the current RFPL top coaches as well as the legendary former coaches); 
2) 16 football managers (FUR and RFPL representatives as well as managers of the Russian top clubs); 
3) 16 Sport-Express newspaper journalists; 
4) football fans. Thousands people voted for their favourite at sport-express.ru and made a great impact to the result

RULES OF THE VOTE

Each out of 48 voters filled in the questionnaire where they had to rank five best players of their choice. The choice could be made among all the players (both Russian and foreign) who performed in the Russian Premier League in the calendar year 2016. Each player got 5 points for the first place in the questionnaire, 4 points for the second place, 3 points for the third place, 2 points for the fourth place and 1 point for the fifth place. 

As for the public voting, the leader got 80 points, 64 points for the second place, 48 points for the third place, 32 points for the fourth place, 16 points for the fifth place.

FEDOR SMOLOV

- scored 31 goals for the club and the national team in total - both at the national and international levels; 
- recognized as the top scorer in the season 2015/16 of the Russian Premier League with 20 goals scored; 
- currently at top of the scorers list in the season 2016/17 with 10 goals score; 
- his goals were recognized as the best by public voting several times; 
- draw attention of the English and German clubs;
- played among the first eleven in three UEFA EURO-2016 matches; 
- scored the first goal of the Russian National team after Stanislav Cherchesov took charge.