Bruno Fernandes won the EA SPORTS Player of the Season award for the first time after being voted the standout player of the Premier League campaign in 2025/26, capping a season in which he drove Manchester United into third place and a UEFA Champions League spot.
The Manchester United captain finished the league season with 28 direct goal contributions in 37 appearances, scoring eight goals and adding 20 assists. That total matched the Premier League single-season assist record held by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry, and it also pushed Fernandes past David Beckham’s club mark of 15 assists set in the 1999/2000 campaign.
Fernandes sealed his 20th assist by setting up Bryan Mbeumo in a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest, then spoke of the satisfaction of finishing on a high. He said he was “very happy for the assist and for the win, and to finish the season on a high,” and added that he had reached 20 and wanted to see if he could get to 21 in the final match.
The award has been running since 1994/95 and Fernandes is only the seventh Manchester United player to win it, joining Peter Schmeichel, Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nemanja Vidic and Wayne Rooney. The winner was decided by supporter votes combined with a panel of experts, and Fernandes topped an eight-man shortlist after a season that also brought him the Football Writers’ Association men’s Footballer of the Year award.
His numbers help explain why the vote broke his way. Fernandes created 132 chances, the most in the Premier League and 43 more than Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai, while his March award as EA SPORTS Player of the Month matched Cristiano Ronaldo’s tally of six such honours. The only question left is whether he can turn one more assist in Manchester United’s final match at home to Aston Villa into a new all-time Premier League record.
