‘Credit goes to the team’ – Man Utd star Fernandes reacts to PFA news

Joe Williams
Bruno Fernandes Man Utd
Bruno Fernandes Man Utd

Man Utd midfielder Bruno Fernandes insists you can only win personal accolades if your team is doing well after being nominated for the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year award.

Manchester City star Phil Foden was also shortlisted for the main PFA player of the year award, while also being in contention for the young player prize.

Foden is one of four City players on the six-man shortlist for the main prize. Kevin De Bruyne, who won the players’ player of the year award in 2020, is again nominated, along with midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and defender Ruben Dias.


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The Portuguese, who joined City from Benfica last September, has already won the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year award.

The other nominee for the main men’s award is Tottenham and England forward Harry Kane and Fernandes says he would happily swap individual recognition for winning silverware with Man Utd.

Fernandes, who contributed 18 goals and 12 assists in the Premier League this season, told the official Man Utd website: “If we win trophies, it is the most important thing.

“Of course, it’s good for a player to win individual awards and I will never say I don’t want to be the best player in the league or I don’t want to be the PFA Player of the Season. I want to be [that] but I want to be [that] if the team wins trophies. If the team does win trophies, for me, it’s the same.

“For me, the most important thing is to help my team-mates to also be player of the season. That’s the most important thing because, if someone from the club is player of the season, it means that we do very, very well this season.

“I think we will always be happy if someone else takes an individual award because it means the team is doing well. Nobody in football, a team sport, wins an individual trophy just doing well himself. You have to do well but you have to have the help of your team-mates to do well.

“When you have an individual trophy, of course, you are doing really well and deserve the credit but that credit goes to the team because they help you do better and better.”