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The eight nominees for the 2025-26 Premier League Young Player of the Season have been announced. We look at the best data for each nominee.
As we approach the end of the Premier League season, it’s time for awards to be handed out, and for fans to enthusiastically debate the merits of each one.
The Premier League Young Player of the Season is for players who were aged 23 or younger at the start of the 2025-26 campaign, and the eight nominees have now been confirmed.
It was first awarded in the 2019-20 season, with the previous winners being Trent Alexander-Arnold (2019-20), Phil Foden (2020-21 and 2021-22), Erling Haaland (2022-23), Cole Palmer (2023-24) and Ryan Gravenberch (2024-25).
Here, we look at each nominee and their best data from the 2025-26 league campaign to see who might become the latest recipient.
Rayan Cherki
This is surely a nominee who will have universal agreement. Rayan Cherki has lit up the Premier League since joining Manchester City from Lyon last summer.
The young Frenchman has taken to English football like a canard to water, somewhat making a mockery of the idea that you have to be fast and powerful to deal with the pace and physicality of the Premier League. Not that he’s slow or weak, but Cherki very much impacts games with his skill and game intelligence.
He announced himself on his debut when he came off the bench to score his first City goal and add some gloss to a 4-0 win at Wolves, but it his creativity that has mostly caught the eye.
Cherki has 12 assists in the Premier League this season; only Bruno Fernandes (19) has more. Of players to have played at least 500 minutes in the competition this season, his assists per 90 rate of 0.63 is more than Fernandes (0.59), though, while he has the third-best open-play chances created per 90 (2.62) and the best big chances created per 90 (0.99).
There is also the fact he has popped up with big performances in big games. In City’s recent 3-0 win at Chelsea, Cherki pulled the strings and provided two assists as Pep Guardiola’s side took the game away from the hosts in the second half. Then he opened the scoring with a sublime goal in the 2-1 home win over Arsenal that kept the title race alive.
In the 1-0 win at Burnley he created eight open-play chances, the most by any player in a single Premier League game this season.
Mateus Fernandes
It would be very unfair on Mateus Fernandes to define his season by that miss against Arsenal on Sunday, especially as David Raya should be given credit for what was an excellent bit of goalkeeping.
The Portuguese midfielder was otherwise outstanding in that game, and has been a rare bright spark in West Ham’s season, even if he could be about to suffer his second successive Premier League relegation, having gone down with Southampton last season.
Fernandes has three goals and three assists, but has shown himself to be an all-round midfielder. Only four players have made more than his 97 tackles in the Premier League this season, which is more than twice as many as any of his West Ham teammates, while only Jarrod Bowen (31) has created more than his 29 chances from open play for the Hammers.
Fernandes has also recorded 104 attacking sequence involvements, again ranking only behind Bowen (133) for his side.
In addition, he’s won possession 171 times (13th most in the Premier League), including 33 interceptions (10th most of midfielders).
Arguably his standout performance came in West Ham’s 1-1 draw at Brighton in December, where Fernandes won 16 of his 18 duels (88.9%). There have only been two instances of a player winning more duels in a Premier League game this season (Cristian Romero – 21 of 23 for Spurs vs Bournemouth, and Matheus Cunha – 17 of 26 vs Newcastle United).
You’re still thinking about the Arsenal miss, aren’t you?
Lewis Hall
A bit like Fernandes and West Ham, the development of Lewis Hall has been a positive for Newcastle United in an otherwise underwhelming season.
The former Chelsea man has earned a reputation as one of the most dependable full-backs in the Premier League, and he could win himself a place in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup.
Only Sandro Tonali (143) has won possession more often in the Premier League for Newcastle this season than Hall (125), while only Malick Thiaw (169) has won more duels than the Magpies’ left-back (154).
Of defenders to have played at least 1,000 minutes in the Premier League this season, only two have averaged possession regains more often per 90 minutes than Hall (5.6).
While they have a perfectly good left-back in Marc Cucurella, Hall may well be a player whom Chelsea view as one that got away.
Junior Kroupi
Junior Kroupi’s debut season in England really could not have gone much better.
After impressing at Lorient, Kroupi arrived at Bournemouth last summer and didn’t take long to get going. He scored his first goal off the bench against Leeds United, before starts against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest led to scoring three times in those two outings.
Despite adapting from playing up front to moving into more of a number 10/second striker role once Evanilson came back into the side, Kroupi has continued to score goals, now on 12 in the league.
He has equalled the record for most Premier League goals by a teenager in their debut season, along with Robbie Fowler in 1993-94 and Robbie Keane in 1999-00 (12) and has two games left to claim the record outright.
His shot conversion rate of 27.3% is also the best of any Premier League player to have scored at least five goals this season.
Senior Kroupi must be very proud.
Michael Kayode
After an impressive half-season at Brentford on loan from Fiorentina in 2024-25, Michael Kayode joined the Bees permanently last summer, and has carried on impressing.
The Italian right-back is so much more than long throws, but he is also very much long throws.
Kayode has sent 160 long throws into the opposition box in the Premier League this season, at least 32 more than any other player, creating 15 chances from them, at least 11 more than anyone else.
He can do more than lobbing a ball a long way with his hands, though. Only three Premier League defenders have won possession more often than Kayode (155), while of full-backs, only Nottingham Forest’s Neco Williams (207) has won more duels than him (203).
Kayode has also made 64 tackles in the Premier League this season; only Yehor Yarmoliuk (68) has made more for Brentford.
Kobbie Mainoo
This one might raise a few eyebrows, despite Kobbie Mainoo undeniably being one of the best young players in the Premier League.
The Manchester United midfielder has played in 26 of their 36 league games, and totalled just 1,473 minutes (excluding stoppage time), of which only 12 appearances and 211 minutes came before the turn of the year.
Call it recency bias if you want, but Mainoo has certainly played a big part in United’s improvement since Michael Carrick came in as interim boss in January.
United have won 17 of the 26 league games Mainoo has played this season. Only Casemiro and Luke Shaw (both 18) have taken part in more Premier League wins for the club, but both have played in more games (32 and 36 respectively).
This season, Mainoo has completed 86.1% of passes made under high pressure (a defender within two metres), which sees him rank eighth out of 66 midfielders to have attempted 400+ passes in total.
He also scored the winner in the recent 3-2 victory over Liverpool at Old Trafford, which we’re sure United fans would argue should be enough on its own to earn an award.
Nico O’Reilly
Nico O’Reilly broke into the Man City side in 2024-25, playing nine Premier League games (six starts), but this has been his real breakout year.
He has five goals and three assists in the league this season, largely from left-back, and has really earned the trust of Guardiola. Only Bernardo Silva (36) and Erling Haaland (34) have played more league games than O’Reilly (33).
As well as his impressive all-round play, the 21-year-old has developed a real knack for arriving in the box at just the right time.
O’Reilly – who won the Premier League Academy Graduate of the Year on Tuesday – has stepped up in big moments this season. He scored both goals in the 2-1 win over Newcastle at the Etihad, and though it obviously doesn’t count towards this award, also scored twice in the 2-0 EFL Cup final win over Arsenal.
He also made his England senior debut earlier this season, and you’d be shocked not to see him in the Three Lions’ final World Cup squad this summer.
Alex Scott
Alex Scott has been somewhat of an unsung hero in what has been a phenomenal season for Bournemouth that will surely see the Cherries qualify for Europe for the first time in their history.
Scott has three goals and an assist, having played in all 36 Premier League games for Andoni Iraola’s side this season.
His calmness and assuredness on the ball has been a real factor in Bournemouth’s incredible 16-game unbeaten run, which remains ongoing, while he’s also invaluable to his team off the ball; only three players have won possession more often than Scott (184) in the Premier League this season.
His most iconic moment was undoubtedly scoring the winner in the 2-1 victory at Arsenal, racing into the box and calmly slotting past David Raya.
Reports suggest Bournemouth are eager to tie him down to a long-term contract at the Vitality Stadium, with the Premier League’s big clubs supposedly keeping an eye on him this summer.
Who knows, though? Scott might not even need to leave to play Champions League football next season.
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