Manchester United Captain Bruno Fernandes Wins Premier League Player-of-season Award After 15 Years

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has been named the Premier League Player of the Season 2025-26 for the first time after emerging as the standout performer in the campaign.

Fernandes has enjoyed a brilliant season for Manchester United, playing a key role in their resurgence and helping the club secure a UEFA Champions League spot.

The Portuguese midfielder has recorded eight goals and 20 assists in 37 Premier League appearances, directly contributing to 28 goals as United finished third in the table.

His 20th assist of the season, which came in a 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest for Bryan Mbeumo, saw him draw level with former Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry for most assists in a single Premier League campaign.

Fernandes now has a chance to become the Premier League's all-time single-season assist leader if he provides another assist in Manchester United's final league match of the season against Aston Villa on Sunday.

The 31-year-old has already made history at Old Trafford, equalling David Beckham's long-standing record for the most assists by a Manchester United player in a single Premier League season, with 15 set in the 1999-2000 campaign.

Overall, Fernandes has created 132 chances this season, the highest in the league and 43 more than the next best, Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai. He also equalled Cristiano Ronaldo's record of six Premier League Player of the Month awards, while earlier being named Football Writers' Association Men's Footballer of the Year -- the first Manchester United player to win the honour since Wayne Rooney in 2010.

Fernandes topped an eight-player shortlist that included Arsenal's Gabriel Magalhaes, David Raya and Declan Rice, Manchester City duo Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo, Brentford's Igor Thiago, and Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White.

He becomes the first Manchester United player since Nemanja Vidic in 2010/11 to win the Premier League Player of the Season award.