Bruno Fernandes wins Premier League player of the season award

Bruno Fernandes’ season ended with the kind of recognition Manchester United have been chasing for more than a decade: a Premier League award that now doubles as proof the club’s rebuild has started to produce something tangible.

The United captain won the EA SPORTS Player of the Season prize after directly contributing to 28 league goals, scoring eight and supplying 20 assists across 37 Premier League appearances. That made him the seventh Manchester United player to claim the award and the first since Nemanja Vidic in 2010/11, a gap that underlined how rarely the club’s best players have matched individual excellence with team progress in recent years.

Fernandes’ final assist of the campaign came on 17 May 2026, when he set up Bryan Mbeumo in a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. That pass took him to 20 assists, equalling the Premier League single-season record held by Thierry Henry from 2002/03 and Kevin De Bruyne from 2019/20. He also created 132 chances, more than any other player in the league, and his assists directly earned Manchester United 21 points, a Premier League record for one player in a single season.

The award has existed since 1994/95, when Alan Shearer won the inaugural prize, and the winner is decided by a combination of public votes, the 20 club captains and a panel of football experts. Fernandes emerged from that process after a season in which he was not simply productive, but decisive in the matches that shaped United’s standing.

That matters because the accolade arrived alongside broader signs of recovery at Old Trafford. Manchester United finished third and secured a place in the UEFA Champions League, giving the season a very different feel from the turbulence that has defined much of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era. Fernandes had already been named Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year earlier in May, adding a second major individual honor to a campaign that coincided with United’s best league finish in years.

For Manchester United, the significance goes beyond Fernandes’ numbers. The club has spent seasons searching for a route back to credibility, and this award suggests that one player has carried enough creative weight to turn a frustrated project into a competitive side. In a league where elite creators often define the gap between promise and progress, Fernandes has become the clearest sign that United’s attempted revival is finally yielding results.