Despite his side’s narrow loss to No 9 Krylya Sovetov yesterday (1:2), Spartak Moscow’s Brazilian Alex retained his top spot in the FTBL ranking of midfielders in the Russian Premier League.

Alex earned just 3.6 rating points in the FTBL system in yesterday’s game to increase his tally to 85.23 points.

In the two games left in the season (against No 5 CSKA Moscow and No 4 Zenit St. Petersburg), Alex will have to “defend” about 12 points, while No 2 Karadeniz Gokdeniz (83.12 points) of Rubin Kazan will face a combined plank of 57.49 points in his 4 remaining games. The Brazilian appears in pole position to end the season as the best midfielder in the Russian top league.