The Manchester United captain won’t be considered for the Ballon d’Or unless Portugal win the World Cup, but he went in to great fanfare as he lifted the domestic end-of-season award.
Bruno Fernandes had his best season at Manchester United (Image: Getty Images)
There is a strong element of Paul Pogba stating the obvious when he says Bruno Fernandes would be a Ballon d’Or candidate if he played for Manchester City. City have won trophies and will probably win another before the end of the season.
City are a truly elite club and are not far from the peak of their powers yet. If Fernandes had played for Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich, he would have been a candidate for the Ballon d’Or, but he is playing for Manchester United and is unlikely to win a single title this season.
They were eliminated in the Carabao Cup by Grimsby Town and in the FA Cup by Brighton & Hove Albion. Fernandes is phenomenally important to United, but might not be as important to better teams. Bayern Munich, PSG, City.
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It takes a little guesswork to imagine how he would perform on those teams. If Fernandes helps Portugal win the World Cup, he will become a candidate for the Ballon d’Or despite playing for a club where he has only appeared in 40 games this season.
But relatively speaking, Portugal is unlikely to win the World Cup. Winning the Ballon d’Or is unlikely for Fernandes, but individual honors in this country are more than a possibility.
He has to be a strong candidate for the Player of the Year award as voted by the Football Writers’ Association and the Player of the Year award as voted by members of the Professional Footballers’ Association.
Declan Rice was outstanding in the first half of this season, but his form has declined a bit (Image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Naturally, many voters want to choose someone who has contributed significantly to a team’s successful season. City could win the treble and Arsenal could win double the prestige.
But who will be selected from City? It’s only recently that Rayan Cherki’s talent has come to our attention, and we now take Erling Haaland’s prolific excellence for granted. Bernardo Silva is always ignored.
Who are the candidates from Arsenal? Declan Rice had a great first half of the season, but by his rare standards he hasn’t been outstanding for some time, and individual awards tend to be given to defenders and goalkeepers less often.
David Raya deserves a shoutout, but the last keeper to be voted Player of the Year was Neville Southall in 1984-85. In 2020-21, Ruben Diaz became the first defenseman to win the award since Steve Nichol in 1988-89.
Neville Southall was the last goalkeeper to be named Player of the Year by football writers (Image: GETTY)
Peter Shilton (1977-78) is the only keeper to win the PFA award and Virgil van Dijk (2018-19) is the only defender to win the award in the past 20 years. Arsenal’s strength is their defense, which is generally not recognized in individual polls.
Therefore, the Player of the Year/Man of the Year award could come from outside the top two, and there is no better candidate than Fernandes. He is a United player who has not only honed his game for a manager who wants a long-term job.
He was great as Reuben Amorim, a slightly different role, but also as Michael Carrick. His stats are impressive.
He is just two away from setting a Premier League season record for assists with 20. And by the end of the season, there is no doubt that he will set a Premier League record for the percentage of goals assisted.
Bruno Fernandes has provided 18 assists in the Premier League this season (Image: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
That’s the most meaningful statistic. He has assisted on over 31 per cent of United’s Premier League goals this season. Kevin De Bruyne’s total of 20 goals in 2019/20 means he assisted on 19.6 per cent of City’s goals in the Premier League campaign.
But statistics only tell part of the story. Not only was Fernandes a great player on the pitch, he was also a great ambassador off the pitch.
Haaland’s explosive performance at the end of the season and City’s title win could push the Norwegian striker over the line. But even if he doesn’t, Fernandes would be a very worthy player of the year.
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