📅 September 5, 2026

Bruno Fernandes Is United’s Player of the Month for August. Here’s What the Fans Were Voting For.

By Mav Jones · Manchester United fan writer

Bruno Fernandes is Manchester United’s Player of the Month for August. The club confirmed it on Friday, and the fans voted for it, which after a two-game month with one defeat in it tells you how the second game landed. It’s his fourth club monthly award in twelve months. The league’s version of the prize is still open. He’s one of eight on the Premier League’s shortlist for the same month, the public vote closes at noon UK time on Monday, 7 AM Eastern, and the winner is named on Friday 11 September. If it’s him, he becomes a joint record holder.

What the vote is for

Twenty-eight minutes. That’s how long the hat-trick took against Ipswich: the equaliser on 40, the penalty on 61, the third on 68, all of it after United had gone behind on 29. He then picked out Mbeumo with a long pass for the fifth. Three goals and an assist, playing behind Cunha’s false nine, in a game United were losing at the half-hour. The Premier League’s own write-up calls it “a stunning performance”, which is as far as that page ever goes.

It has already won him three things. United’s Player of the Match. The Premier League’s Player of the Matchweek, with 69% of the fan vote. And now the club’s monthly award, decided by supporters, which he won three times last season as well, in September, March and May.

The shortlist, and why he isn’t the favourite

The league lists each nominee’s month in a line. Here they are in the league’s own numbers.

• Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd): played 2, won 1, lost 1, 3 goals, 1 assist.
• Rayan Cherki (Man City): played 2, won 2, 2 goals, 2 assists, in 109 minutes.
• João Pedro (Chelsea): played 2, won 2, 2 goals, 2 assists.
• Cole Palmer (Chelsea): played 2, won 2, 2 goals, 1 assist, both goals match-winners.
• Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal): played 2, won 2, 2 assists from left-back, 2 clean sheets.
• Yoane Wissa (Newcastle): played 2, won 1, drew 1, 1 goal, 1 assist.
• Mamadou Sangaré (Brentford): played 2, won 1, drew 1, 1 assist, 27 defensive contributions.
• Konstantinos Tzolakis (Hull): played 2, won 2, 2 clean sheets, the first of them against United.

The case against Bruno is on that list. Five of the eight went unbeaten. Cherki and João Pedro match his four goal contributions from two wins each. Tzolakis is nominated partly for the 21 shots United put on him without scoring at Hull. Bruno’s month contains the worst United result of the season and the best, and the voters will decide how much the first one costs.

The case for him is also on that list. He’s the only nominee with a hat-trick. And the fan vote, which is one of three inputs alongside a panel of experts and the twenty Premier League captains, has already spoken once this month: the Player of the Matchweek shortlist he took 69% of included Cherki, João Pedro and Tzolakis. Three of the seven men he’s up against lost to him a week ago.

Why the number is seven

Fernandes has won the Premier League’s Player of the Month six times: February, June, November and December 2020, March 2025 and March 2026. That last one, according to the league’s own announcement, drew him level with Cristiano Ronaldo and made him the most decorated player in the award’s history since his own debut in February 2020. The record is seven, shared by Harry Kane, Sergio Agüero and Mohamed Salah. Nobody has eight.

So the August award isn’t a bauble. It would put a United midfielder alongside three strikers at the top of a list that’s been running since 1994, with the whole of a season still to play. Mbeumo won it for United in October last year and Bruno in March, so an August win would make it three United winners in the last ten awards.

The season this sits in

Twelve months ago the question about Bruno was whether he’d still be here. He is, and the honours since read like a career: Premier League Player of the Season, Footballer of the Year and the PFA award, a fifth Sir Matt Busby trophy that took him past Ronaldo and De Gea, and the single-season assist record at 21. He is 31, in the last year of his deal, and the club has a one-year option that Football Insider reported on Thursday it intends to trigger while a longer contract is negotiated. On this form the option is the floor, not the plan. And since this was written the Ballon d’Or shortlist has caught up: he’s on the 30 for 2026, a year after 19 and 19 wasn’t enough to make it.

The vote is on the EA SPORTS site and closes Monday morning US time. Then Everton at 9 AM Eastern on Sunday, where the striker who scored the winner there in February is fit and the captain has three goals in his last game. Friday will tell us whether the rest of the country saw what Old Trafford saw.

Sources: Manchester United official statement via The Peoples Person and Centre Devils, 5 Sep 2026 (club Player of the Month for August, fan-voted; last season’s monthly wins; Sir Matt Busby record); Premier League, “Pick your August EA SPORTS Player of the Month” (shortlist, per-player numbers and blurbs, voting deadline 12:00 BST Mon 7 Sep, announcement Fri 11 Sep, public plus expert panel plus captains); Premier League, “Fernandes equals Ronaldo with sixth EA SPORTS Player of the Month award” (March 2026; the six months; record of seven shared by Kane, Agüero and Salah); Wikipedia, Premier League Player of the Month (record cross-check); Football Insider via The Peoples Person, 4 Sep 2026 (one-year option); our Ipswich match report and Player of the Matchweek piece for the goal times and the 69% vote. Accurate as of 5 September 2026.