The best player of the 2024/2025 Azerbaijan Premier League season has been announced.
Portuguese midfielder Leandro Andrade from Qarabag FK has been voted the league’s top performer, Idman.biz reports.
The selection was made through a poll conducted by the Sports Research Center with informational support from the Teleqraf agency.
A total of 204 respondents participated in the voting process, including 195 players from all 10 Premier League clubs and 9 out of 10 head coaches. Of these, 59 votes went to Leandro Andrade.
Zira’s forward Salifou Soumah from Guinea-Bissau came in second with 52 votes, while Rufat Abdullazada of Sabail—despite the team’s relegation—secured third place with 9 votes.
Players from each club cast their votes, excluding players from their own teams: Qarabag (25), Kapaz (24), Sabah (23), Sabail (22), Neftchi (19), Zira, Turan Tovuz, and Sumgayit (17 each), Araz-Nakhchivan (16), and Shamakhi (15). Only Kurban Berdyev, head coach of Turan Tovuz, refrained from making a selection, citing difficulty in choosing.
In total, votes were distributed among 40 players.
Other notable vote-getters included:
8 votes: Igor Ribeiro (Araz- Nakhchivan), Yassine Benzia (Qarabag)
5 votes: Emin Mahmudov (Neftchi), Marko Jankovic (Qarabag), Ruan Renato (Zira)
4 votes: Toral Bayramov (Qarabag)
3 votes each: Nariman Akhundzada, Abdellah Zoubir (both Qarabag), Rza Jafarov (Neftchi)
2 votes each: Jesse Sekidika, Umarali Rakhmonaliyev (both Sabah), Davit Volkovi, Qismat Aliyev (both Zira), Edgar Adilkhanov, Rafael Maharramli (both Shamakhi), Elvin Cafarquliyev (Qarabag), Cristian Avram (Araz-Nakhchivan), Rauf Huseynli (Kapaz), Agadadash Salyanski (Neftchi), Alirza Müştabazada (Sabail), Faig Hajiyev (Turan Tovuz)
Another 16 players each received 1 vote.
As per the rules, respondents could only vote for players from clubs other than their own.
The Sports Research Center has been selecting the league’s best player since the 2017/2018 season. Past winners include:
2017/2018 – Javid Imamverdiyev
2018/2019 – Emin Mahmudov
2019/2020 – Abdellah Zoubir
2020/2021 – Namik Alaskarov
2021/2022 – Kady Borges Malinowski
2022/2023 – Aleksey Kashuk
Notably, no vote was held in the 2023/2024 season.
Idman.biz
