Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has been named the Premier League Player of the Season for 2025/26, capping off a historic individual campaign that carried United back into the Champions League and reminded everyone why he remains the heartbeat of the team.

The award was announced on Saturday 23 May 2026, making Fernandes the first United player to win it since Nemanja Vidic in 2010/11 and only the seventh Red Devil to claim the honor in the Premier League era.

Fernandes’ season will be remembered for his creativity and consistency over 38 games. He finished with 20 assists, matching the all-time single-season record set by Thierry Henry in 2002/03 and equaled by Kevin De Bruyne in 2019/20. That 20th assist came in a tense 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford, a perfectly weighted ball for Bryan Mbeumo that sparked wild celebrations on the touchline.

With one game left against Brighton, Fernandes still has a chance to stand alone at the top of the list. Alongside those assists he chipped in 8 goals, taking his total direct goal contributions to 28 and placing him second only to Erling Haaland’s 35 in the league.

What set Fernandes apart wasn’t just the numbers but the way he created them. He generated 132 chances across the campaign, 43 more than any other player in the division. Of those, 95 came from open play and 37 from set-pieces, showing his influence in every phase of United’s attack.

Week after week, his ability to find a pass that wasn’t obvious kept United ticking even when performances around him dipped. It’s that kind of output that saw him win the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award earlier in May, and now the league’s top individual prize to match it.

The recognition feels like a full-circle moment for a player who arrived at Old Trafford in January 2020 and immediately changed the team’s trajectory. Now 31, Fernandes has shouldered the captaincy with a mix of intensity and belief that has defined United’s season under Michael Carrick. His leadership showed in the big moments, whether it was dragging United through a run of tight games in March and April or keeping the squad focused after a shaky start to the campaign. That mentality helped United secure third place and a return to the Champions League, a target that looked distant in December.

Fernandes beat a competitive shortlist that included Arsenal’s title-winning trio of Gabriel, David Raya and Declan Rice, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White and Brentford’s Igor Thiago. The vote reflects how dominant his individual season was even in a year where Arsenal pushed for the title and Haaland again broke the 30-goal mark. For United fans, it’s validation of what they’ve seen every week: a midfielder who plays with relentless energy, refuses to hide in tough moments, and delivers the kind of passes that win games.

The award adds to an already stacked personal cabinet. Fernandes has now won United’s Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year five times and matched Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of six Premier League Player of the Month awards. With nine total wins, United remain the club with the most Player of the Season awards in Premier League history, and Fernandes is the seventh different United player to lift the trophy.

Speaking after the Forest game, Fernandes said he was “very happy for the assist and for the win, and to finish the season on a high.” That humility has been a theme all year. For a player who could easily focus on his own numbers, he’s consistently pointed back to the team and the need to get United back where they belong. On current form, he’s done more than anyone to make that happen.

If he breaks the assist record against Brighton, it will be the perfect exclamation point on a season that has re-established him as one of the Premier League’s defining players. Whether he does or not, the 2025/26 campaign will stand as the year Bruno Fernandes turned individual brilliance into team success and claimed the recognition that’s long been coming.