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Bruno Fernandes was named the PFA Men’s Players’ Player of the Year at the awards in Manchester, having set a Premier League record with 21 assists last season. The Manchester United captain adds the prize to the Football Writers’ Association and Premier League Player of the Season awards. Nico O’Reilly took the Young Player award, and Arsenal supplied five of the eleven in the Team of the Year.
Manchester, England: Twenty-one assists. No player in the history of the Premier League has provided more in a single season.
That is the number Bruno Fernandes brought to the Manchester Opera House on Tuesday, and it is the number that persuaded his fellow professionals to vote him Players’ Player of the Year — an award decided by the men who spend their weekends trying to stop him.
“It is obviously a very proud moment,” the Manchester United captain said. “They are the ones you go on the pitch against and it’s probably not easy to vote for someone you play against, so it is a very good moment.”
The Full Set
The PFA prize completes a hat-trick. Fernandes had already collected the Football Writers’ Association award and the Premier League’s own Player of the Season earlier this summer.
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The 31-year-old passed 200 goal contributions for United across all competitions in February, six years on from his arrival from Sporting CP in 2020.
O’Reilly’s Breakthrough Year
Manchester City’s Nico O’Reilly won the Men’s Young Player of the Year award after a season that took him from squad player to England international.
The 21-year-old made 34 league appearances under Pep Guardiola, won two trophies, and was named in England’s World Cup squad. “I had a great season,” he said. “I won two trophies with my club and managed to play at the World Cup with my country. I’m over the moon how it turned out.”
He is also the only defender outside Arsenal in the Team of the Year.
Arsenal Take Over the Eleven
The players’ selected Team of the Year reads as a verdict on last season’s title race. Arsenal supplied five players, Manchester City four.
David Raya takes the goalkeeping place. Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba and Jurrien Timber form three-quarters of the defence, with O’Reilly the fourth. Declan Rice joins Fernandes and Rayan Cherki in midfield, and Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo lead the line alongside Brentford’s Igor Thiago.
Fernandes and Thiago are the only players from outside the two Manchester clubs and Arsenal.
The Rest of the Night
Bunny Shaw was named Women’s Players’ Player of the Year, completing her own double after taking the FWA award in May. Arsenal’s Olivia Smith won the Women’s Young Player prize.
In the EFL categories, Hayden Hackney of Middlesbrough took the Championship award, Dom Ballard of Leyton Orient won in League One, and Swindon Town’s Aaron Drinan was named League Two Player of the Year.
PFA Premier League Team of the Year 2026
Goalkeeper: David Raya (Arsenal)
Defenders: Gabriel Magalhaes (Arsenal), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), William Saliba (Arsenal), Jurrien Timber (Arsenal)
Midfielders: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Rayan Cherki (Manchester City)
Forwards: Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City), Igor Thiago (Brentford)
Men’s Players’ Player of the Year: Bruno Fernandes
Men’s Young Player of the Year: Nico O’Reilly
Women’s Players’ Player of the Year: Bunny Shaw
Women’s Young Player of the Year: Olivia Smith
