Fans’ voting for the EA SPORTS Player of the Season closed at 12:00 BST on Monday 18 May, leaving an eight‑player shortlist to be decided by a weighted mix of public ballots and a panel of football experts that will determine who takes home the Pfa Player Of The Year 2026 honours.
The nominees are Arsenal’s Gabriel, David Raya and Declan Rice; Manchester City duo Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo; Brentford striker Igor Thiago; Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes; and Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs‑White. The combined public-and-panel process will produce the official winner for the 2025/26 campaign.
The numbers underline why the debate has narrowed quickly. Erling Haaland is among the leading statistical cases: one set of tallies shows 26 goals and eight assists in 34 Premier League appearances, he sits on the cusp of a third Coca‑Cola Golden Boot in four seasons and he became a Premier League scoring centurion in 111 matches. Bruno Fernandes posted eight goals and 19 assists in 33 Premier League matches — one assist shy of the all‑time single‑season record — while Morgan Gibbs‑White added 13 goals and four assists in 35 league appearances.
Defensive and goalkeeping credentials also run through the list. Arsenal’s Gabriel registered three goals, four assists and 16 clean sheets in 30 Premier League matches in a season in which the club conceded just 26 goals. David Raya produced 18 clean sheets in 36 Premier League appearances and secured the Coca‑Cola Golden Glove for a third successive season.
The shortlist arrives after the season closed. Article 1 records that Arsenal clinched the title after Manchester City’s 1‑1 draw with AFC Bournemouth on Tuesday 19 May, and notes City still had fixtures that could alter final totals — Article 1 pointed to a scheduled match at home to Aston Villa on 24 May as a final chance for Haaland to add to his haul.
Not all sources line up on raw totals, which has sharpened the argument rather than settling it. Article 1 carried alternative figures for Haaland — 27 Premier League goals in 35 matches and nine assists — and noted he had scored his 38th goal of the season against Bournemouth and amassed 162 goals in 198 appearances for Manchester City overall. That variation, and the season’s blend of league and all‑competition numbers, gives voters and the expert panel room to disagree on which metric should carry most weight.
Beyond raw statistics there is a narrative fight. Bruno Fernandes, who captained Manchester United and has been blunt about his relationship with the club in public — “The club wanted me to leave,” he has said — is being assessed for influence and chance creation as much as goals. Gabriel and Raya are argued about as foundational to Arsenal’s defensive record; Morgan Gibbs‑White, Igor Thiago and Antoine Semenyo have cases built on productivity and moments that swung matches.
Article 1 explicitly argued the case for Haaland as the PFA Player of the Year based on his scoring and assist totals, and his earlier PFA recognition in 2022/23 after a 52‑goal season gives him recent pedigree in the award’s voting circles. That history, paired with the outstanding goal tally this season, makes Haaland the clearest statistical frontrunner going into the combined public‑and‑expert reckoning.
When the panel’s verdict is folded into the public vote, the deciding factor will likely be which argument — prolific scoring or transformative team influence — wins more converts among experts and supporters. On balance, given his numbers across competitions and his prior PFA success, Erling Haaland now looks the likeliest winner of the Pfa Player Of The Year 2026, though the panel’s weighting could yet hand the prize to a candidate whose value cannot be reduced to goals alone.
