On Tuesday night, the yearly Professional Football Association Award ceremony was held in Manchester. And the Premier League players voted Bruno Fernandes as the Player of the Year
Bruno Fernandes is the PFA Players’ Player of the Year 🏆
Voted for by the players. pic.twitter.com/CPkxcnVNVY
— PFA (@PFA) August 25, 2026
Bruno’s performance
Individually, Bruno had a stellar season. He scored 9 goals and provided 21 assist across 35 games. Performance wise, no player in the Premier League stood out like him
He broke the long standing assist record in the premier league history with 21 assist and that alone sealed his place.
But here’s the other side of it, Manchester United finished third on the table behind Arsenal and Man City, and they were not even in the title race
Many fans argued that Arsenal’s Declan Rice should have won the award because Arsenal won the Premier League and Declan Rice was obviously the standout player
The crash out from social media since the award night has been based solely on this fact
Past precedent
In 2025, Liverpool won the league and Salah won the PFA POTY, being the standout player in the team. In 2024, Man City won the league and Phil Foden won the PFA Player of the Year for his performance. Same as Erling Haaland in 2023
But in 2022, Mohammed Salah won the PFA POTY award without winning the league, but his case was easily debatable; Liverpool lost the league to City by only 1 point and the title race that year was down to the wire
In the last 10 years, it has happened only thrice that the PFA POTY winner did not come from the team that won the league – Salah in 2022, Salah in 2018 and now Bruno in 2026
With that being said, It is also important to note that Gareth Bale won his second PFA POTY award in the 2013 and Tottenham at the time finished 5th in the stadings
Do Arsenal fans have a case for Declan Rice
Yes, they do. But not above Bruno Fernandes.
The winner of the league has always had the best shot at winning the PFA POTY but it’s not a guarantee.
The PFA POTY award has always been for the best player during the season, whether the team wins the league or not; as it happened with Salah in 2022, Salah in 2018, Suarez in 2014, Bale in 2013, Van Persie in 2012 and Bale again in 2011
My Verdict
There’s no argument here. Bruno Fernandes was undoubtedly the best player in the Premier League last season
And as history has shown us, it’s not about who wins the league but based on individual performance in that season
Winning the title is only an added advantage and many could argue Raya played a more important role than Declan Rice
