Bruno Fernandes didn't just have a good season — he rewrote the Premier League assist record and then collected both major player of the year awards to prove it wasn't noise. The Manchester United captain followed up his Football Writers' Association honour with Tuesday's PFA prize, voted for by the players themselves. That second part matters. Peers are harder to impress than journalists.
His 21 assists in 2025/26 surpassed the record previously shared by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry. Two names that don't get topped lightly.
A personal season that carried a team
United didn't win a trophy. That context makes the individual awards more complicated — and perhaps more meaningful. Fernandes wasn't draped in silverware when his fellow professionals cast their votes. He was recognised purely on what he did on the pitch, week after week, for a club that needed him to carry it.
"Assisting means that someone is getting goals," he said, "and mostly if I'm assisting, Manchester United is getting goals." That's not false modesty. That's a captain who understands his function.
He also admitted the record crept into his head once everyone around him started talking about it — and that it infected his strikers too, players so focused on setting him up that they briefly forgot about their own games. That's an unusual thing to admit, and it's the most interesting detail in his entire post-award interview.
Who else made the night
Arsenal dominated the PFA Team of the Year with five players — David Raya, Gabriel Magalhaes, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, and Declan Rice — yet came away without the headline award. Rice, who made the six-man shortlist, will feel that. Five teammates recognised collectively, and the individual prize still went elsewhere. Arsenal's title ambitions have been discussed all season; losing this vote to a United player adds a small but pointed footnote.
Manchester City's Nico O'Reilly took Young Player of the Year after a domestic cup double and a World Cup showing that confirmed he's no longer a prospect — he's arrived. Brentford's Igor Thiago earned his Premier League Team of the Year spot after a breakthrough campaign that also landed him in Brazil's World Cup squad. That's a remarkable trajectory for a striker who wasn't on most casual fans' radars 18 months ago.
In the women's game, Manchester City striker Bunny Shaw matched Fernandes with her own double — FWA and PFA women's honours — after 21 goals, the WSL Golden Boot, and a title that ended Chelsea's grip on the league. Arsenal's Olivia Smith took the women's Young Player of the Year.
Sir Kenny Dalglish and Karen Carney OBE received merit awards. Dalglish's eight First Division titles and three European Cups at Liverpool need no embellishment. Carney, now 39, has moved from playing to broadcasting to leading a UK Government-commissioned independent review of the women's game — a career arc that earns the recognition in its own right.
- PFA Men's Player of the Year: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)
- PFA Women's Player of the Year: Bunny Shaw (Manchester City)
- PFA Men's Young Player of the Year: Nico O'Reilly (Manchester City)
- PFA Women's Young Player of the Year: Olivia Smith (Arsenal)
- Premier League Team of the Year: Raya (Arsenal); Gabriel, O'Reilly, Saliba, Timber (Arsenal/City); Fernandes, Rice, Cherki; Haaland, Semenyo, Thiago
Fernandes put it plainly: "I'm very proud that all the ones that have decided to help me." Twenty-one assists, two awards, and a United side still waiting for a trophy. The individual case is closed. The team verdict is still out.
