Bruno Fernandes has been named the Premier League Player of the Month for the fifth time following his performances for Manchester United in March.
Manchester United only played twice in the Premier League across the course of March due to the international break but Bruno Fernandes still stood out.
During a 1-1 draw against Arsenal, it was the Portuguese midfielder who scored the opener for the Reds with a wonderful effort from the edge of the box.
The club captain then dragged his team to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Leicester City. He assisted two goals and then scored the final one with yet another impressive strike.
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old midfielder also scored a hat-trick in the Europa League to ensure United progressed to the quarter-finals of that competition.
Fernandes was nominated for the Premier League Player of the Month alongside the likes of Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Anthony Elanga, Nikola Milenkovic, Declan Rice and Jan Paul van Hecke.
Fernandes named Premier League Player of the Month for March
On Friday, 4 April, it was confirmed that United’s captain had won the award – the fifth time he’s done so since arriving in January 2020.
All of the other occasions happened within Fernandes’ first full year at Old Trafford. He won the award in February 2020 after his first month with the club.
The creative midfielder then won the award in June, November and December of that same year.
Despite his consistent performances since then, Fernandes has had to wait until now to grab the award for the fifth time and is now amongst some esteemed names when looking at who is above him.
The five Premier League players with more Player of the Month awards than Fernandes
Fernandes has equalled Wayne Rooney’s tally of collecting the Player of the Month five times and there are now only five players who have received the accolade more times than United’s talisman. The award has been running since the beginning of the 1994/95 campaign.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard are the two players who have collected the award just one more time than Fernandes has. His fellow Portuguese star most recently won the award in September 2021 after returning to Old Trafford for his second stint.
The three players above all have collected the Player of the Month seven times, with Mo Salah joining Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane at the top of the list after receiving the award twice this season.
With Salah being the only other active Premier League player amongst those names, Fernandes will be thinking whether he can end up topping that list in the future.
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 12:30 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.