Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has been crowned the 2026 Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) — narrowly beating Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice to the award, ESPN reports.
Fernandes, 31, secured 45 per cent of the votes of the English football media and edged out Rice by just 28 votes to become the first United player to receive the award since Wayne Rooney in 2010.
Manchester City forward Erling Haaland, who won the award in 2023, came third in the voting, while Arsenal’s David Raya, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Magalhães all registered a significant number of votes.
No other United player received a vote in the polling.
