Six Players Nominated for PFA Players' Player of the Year Award | OneFootball

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes is one of six players to have been shortlisted for the PFA Players' Player of the Year award.

The 30-year-old is joined by Liverpool's talisman Mohamed Salah, his Argentine teammate Alexis Mac Allister, influential Chelsea playmaker Cole Palmer, Arsenal's box-to-box midfielder Declan Rice and Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak, who finished as runner-up to Salah in the Premier League Golden Boot race after netting 23 goals.

The players are nominated by their fellow professionals and the award is widely regarded as the most coveted individual prize in the Premier League. The recipient of the award for four out of the last five seasons has played for Manchester City, with Phil Foden, Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne (twice) recognised as the best in years gone by.

But after a desperately disappointing season by their own lofty standards, City are not represented this time around—though Fernandes' presence shows that a player can still stand out even when playing in a struggling side.

Indeed, Fernandes was a rare bright spark for a Manchester United side who toiled throughout the season. Not even the appointment of Ruben Amorim as the club's manager could halt an alarming slide down the table, but his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation continued to bring out the best in attacking midfielder Fernandes.

Mohamed Salah would be the pick of many supporters around the world. / IMAGO/Propaganda Photo

The Portugal international scored eight goals and provided 11 assists, an involvement of 43 per cent in United's goal output. Those numbers were dwarfed by Salah, however, who astonishingly chalked up 47 goal contributions (29 goals and 18 assists) to lead Liverpool to the Premier League title in Arne Slot's first season in charge.

Mac Allister's impact is not necessarily backed up by popular statistics, but the classy midfielder controlled a number of matches for Liverpool alongside Ryan Gravenberch, providing moments of continual quality with apparent ease.

Palmer's second season at Chelsea wasn't as spectacular as his first, but he still had a huge impact on proceedings at Stamford Bridge as the Blues earned a place in the top four to qualify for the Champions League. That's a competition Newcastle will be competing in too, largely thanks to the prolific goalscoring of Isak, who is firmly established as one of world football's best goal-getters.

Rice was similarly dominating in Arsenal's midfield, churning out impressive display after impressive display to more than justify the £100 million outlay made when signing him from West Ham United in the summer of 2023.