At the end of last season, when the Russian football world was shortlisting candidates for the national awards, Ismailov got three nominations.
Best attacking midfielder, hope of the season and most valuable player. The 19-year-old won the lot.
It was the first time in Russian football history that one player had manged the feat and in winning the awards he beat off experienced campaigners such as Ruslan Nigmatullin, Yegor Titov and Rolan Gusev.
Ismailov started playing football at the age of three.
Within two years he was training with Lokomotiv juniors, but soon left for Torpedo.
In 2001 he retraced the journey across the city after unexpectedly being offered a contact by Lokomotiv.
It was clear to all that Ismailov was a skillful and determined athlete.
He has incredible tactical sense, stunning ball control and the ability to make fast decisions on the pitch. They are invariably the correct ones.
One fall back is that he does not score many goals, but he makes up for it by providing his team-mates with numerous opportunities.
In modern football a lot of things depend on physical strength, but Ismailov is much stronger in other fields.