Franck Ribery lifts Bundesliga Player of the Year award

Bayern's midfielder Franck Ribery has been voted the Player of the Year by his Bundesliga colleagues.

In all 29 percent of the 228 Bundesliga players voted in favor of the Frenchman, who snatched the award ahead of Borussia Dortmund's striker Robert Lewandowski with 17.3 percent, a poll by the German sports magazine Kicker showed Monday, reports Xinhua.

German international Bastian Schweinsteiger finished third with 12.4 percent of the votes.

Bayern keeper and German international Manuel Neuer secured 23.2 percent of the votes to claim the title as the Goalkeeper of the Year, followed by Dortmund goalie Roman Weidenfeller with 20.6 percent and Hamburg's keeper Rene Adler with 19.7 percent.

The Bundesliga professionals elected Freiburg's head coach Christian Streich with 48.7 percent as the Coach of the Year. Bayern's outgoing coach Jupp Heynckes followed Streich with 23.7 percent while Frankfurts coach Armin Veh finished third with 16.1 percent.

After the historic and record breaking season by the treble winner Bayern Munich 80.9 percent of the professionals view the German Bundesliga as the greatest league in Europe followed by the Premier League with 14.3 percent and the Primera Liga (Spanish) with 4.8 percent.