Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice has been crowned BBC Sport’s first ever Premier League Player of the Year as BBC Sport launched the new BBC Football Awards – a brand-new digital awards show streamed across the new BBC Football YouTube channel and the BBC Sport website today. 

Alongside Rice’s win, Khadija Shaw was named Women’s Super League Player of the Year following another exceptional campaign for Manchester City.

The brand-new awards saw BBC Sport pundits, commentators and journalists vote to crown the standout players, managers and moments from the 2025/26 season across the Premier League, Scottish Premiership, Women’s Super League, EFL Championship, League One and League Two. 

Other big winners included:

Mikel Arteta winning Premier League Manager of the Year 
Nico O’Reilly named Premier League Breakthrough Player of the Year 
Harrison Reed winning Goal of the Season for Fulham’s stunning strike against Liverpool 
Hearts pair Claudio Braga and Derek McInnes taking the top Scottish Premiership honours 
Andrée Jeglertz named Women’s Super League Manager of the Year 
Frank Lampard and Alex Neil jointly awarded EFL Championship Manager of the Year  

Some of the biggest names across BBC Sport football coverage contributed to the voting including Dion Dublin, Chris Sutton, Danny Murphy, Shay Given, Nedum Onuoha, Theo Walcott, Steph Houghton and Ellen White, alongside BBC Sport reporters and journalists.

The stream kicked off at 6pm and was hosted by BBC Sport presenter Sam Harris alongside BBC Sport journalist Alex Fletcher, sports presenter Georgina Chadwick and content creator Watson Hirschfield, who debated the season’s defining moments and gave their own verdicts on the biggest winners of the year. 

Premier League 

Player of the year: Declan Rice (Arsenal) 

Breakthrough Player of the year: Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City) 

Goal of the Season: Reed v Liverpool 

Manager of the Year: Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) 

Best signing: Granit Xhaka (Sunderland) 

Biggest surprise: Tottenham’s relegation battle 

Worst prediction: Liverpool to challenge for the title/win the league 

Most predictable manager sacking: Ange Postecoglou at Forest 

Team of the Year: David Raya (Arsenal), Jurriën Timber (Arsenal), Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal), William Saliba (Arsenal), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forrest), Igor Thiago (Brentford), Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City) 

Scottish Premiership 

Player of the year: Claudio Braga (Hearts)

Breakthrough Player: Barney Stewart & Findlay Curtis 

Goal of the season: Youssef Chermiti’s overhead kick for Rangers v Celtic

Manager of the year: Derek McInnes (Hearts)

Team of the Year: Calum Ward (Motherwell), Filip Lissah (Falkirk), Craig Halkett (Hearts), Emmanuel Fernandez (Rangers), Harry Milne (Hearts), Elijah Just (Motherwell), Cammy Devlin (Hearts), Benjamin Nygren (Celtic), Lawrence Shankland (Hearts), Tawanda Maswanhise (Motherwell), Claudio Braga (Hearts) 

Women’s Super League 

Player of the Year: Khadija Shaw (Manchester City) 

Breakthrough Player of the Year: Veerle Buurman (Chelsea) 

Manager of the Year: Andree Jeglertz (Manchester City)

Team of the Year: Ayaka Yamashita (Man City), Kerstin Casparij (Man City), Jade Rose (Man City), Katie McCabe (Arsenal), Yui Hasegawa (Man City), Jess Park (Man Utd), Olivia Holdt (Tottenham), Khadija Shaw (Man City), Alessia Russo (Arsenal), Lauren Hemp (Man City) 

EFL Championship 

Player of the Year: Hayden Hackney (Middlesbrough)  

Manager of the Year: Frank Lampard (Coventry City) & Alex Neil (Millwall)

EFL Championship Team of the Year: Carl Rushworth (Coventry), Milan van Ewijk (Coventry), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton), Tristan Crama (Millwall), Dara O’Shea (Ipswich), Haji Wright (Coventry), Hayden Hackney (Middlesbrough), Matt Grimes (Coventry), Oli McBurnie (Hull), Žan Vipotnik (Swansea), Femi Azeez (Millwall) 

EFL League One 

Player of the Year: Dom Ballard (Leyton Orient) 

Manager of the Year: Michael Skubala (Lincoln City) 

Team of the Year: George Wickens (Lincoln), Tendayi Darikwa (Lincoln), Sonny Bradley (Lincoln), Dylan Lawlor (Cardiff), Joel Bagan (Cardiff), Oliver Norwood (Stockport), Amario Cozier-Duberry (Bolton), Owen Bailey (Doncaster), Dom Ballard (Leyton Orient), Kyle Wootton (Stockport), Lorent Tolaj (Plymouth)

EFL League Two 

Player of the Year: Aaron Drinan (Swindon Town) 

Manager of the Year: Andy Woodman (Bromley)

League Two TOTY: Matthew Hudson (Oldham), Liam Bennett (Cambridge), Omar Sowunmi (Bromley), Kelland Watts (Cambridge), Luke Garbutt (Salford), Mitch Pinnock (Bromley), Isaac Hutchinson (Bristol Rovers), Tommi O’Reilly (Crewe), Callum Paterson (MK Dons), Aaron Drinan (Swindon), Jaze Kabia (Grimsby) 

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