Castrol Rankings - Oliech Better than Drogba, Mata, Berbatov

Kenya international Dennis Oliech is currently the 146^th best player in the world according to the latest Castrol Edge Rankings. The Auxerre forward moved a massive 117 places amassing 667 points, same as Villareal forward Guissepe Rossi. The 26-year-old has been in imperious form for his club and has already rifled in seven goals in 17matches for the French outfit.

Oliech’s position places him above players like Chelsea and Ivory Coast forward Didier Drogba, Manchester United trio Ashley Young, Patrice Evra and Dimitar Berbatov, as well as Spain international Juan Mata. Other players placed behind him are Man City hard-man Vincent Kompany, PSG’s Javier Pastore, Tottenham’s creative Luca Modric and Inter Milan’s Wesley Sneijder.

Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi continues to hold the number one position, with Mario Gomez, Karim Benzema and Robin Van Persie ranked second, third and fourth respectively. Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Tottenham’s Emmanuel Adebayor swapped places with the Portuguese taking fifth spot and the Togolese moving to sixth.

Bayern Munich duo Van Buyten (8) and Arjen Robben (10) were the biggest movers into the top 10. Van Buyten moved to position 8 from position 28 while the Dutchman moved from position 31 to close the top 10 at the expense of Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta.

The top 20 list is dominated by players from the Primera Liga who occupy half the numbers with the English Premier League having six, Bundesliga 3 and Serie A represented by Antonio Di Natale only.

Dennis Oliech’s fellow international MacDonald Mariga is placed at position 1447 having dropped 52 places from his previous position 1395. The two are the only Kenyan and East African players plying their trade in the top five European leagues. Mariga is on loan at Real Sociedad from Inter Milan while Oliech plays for AJ Auxerre.

The Castrol EDGE Rankings is based on the actual performance of every football player across Europe's top five leagues; Spanish La Liga, English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Italy Serie A and French Ligue 1.

The next update will be released on February 9, 2012. You can get and navigate through the full list of Castrol Rankings here.

Meanwhile Oliech has also been named AJ Auxerre player of the month of December. The Kenyan national football team captain garnered 67% of the votes with his closest challenger, Kamel Chafni garnering 12%. The poll was conducted on the club's official website.

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