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There is no doubt Manchester United have given Bruno Fernandes a push to get this award.

United have been playing up Fernandes’ claims and also ensured the Portugal playmaker was promoted through some recent media engagements.

However, this would have been pointless had Fernandes not delivered at a time in the season when United needed him to deliver.

In October, when Fernandes spoke about qualification for the Champions League, few thought it was likely.

In January, when technical director Jason Wilcox told the United squad that was the aim despite Ruben Amorim’s dismissal, it seemed a tall order.

That they have achieved it with three matches to spare and could yet end the campaign nearer in points terms to the eventual champions than in any other season since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement 13 years ago, owes a huge amount to Fernandes.

Since returning from a rare injury against Burnley, Sunday’s victory over Liverpool was only the third match out of 16 in all competitions when Fernandes has not either scored a goal or created one.

His performances across the season have been consistently high and worthy of wider recognition.

Twelve months ago, when the debate over Fernandes’ United future raged, the question being asked was simply this: where would they be without him? The suspicion was they would have been much closer to relegation than they actually were.

The same could be asked now. The answer? They surely would not be looking forward to a Champions League return.

April 22 (UPI) — More than 152 million people in the United States – about 44%– live in areas that have unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, the American Lung Association said in the 2026 State of the Air report released Wednesday.

The report also noted that 44.6% of U.S. children live in counties that have failing grades for at least one measure of air pollution,while 10% of children live in counties with failing grades in all three measures. These measures include ground-level ozone (smog) and both short-term and year-round particle pollution (soot).

“Infants, children and teens are especially vulnerable to the health harms of breathing pollution,” the report said. “Their lungs are still developing, they breathe more air for their body size than adults and they frequently spend more time outdoors.”

The report showed that trends from last year’s edition continued and often grew worse, including extreme heat in many places that affected ozone levels and wildfires in Canada that affected ozone and particle pollution.

“Clean air is not something we can take for granted,” American Lung Association President Harold Wimmer said in announcing the report, the Washington Post reported. “For decades, people in the U.S. have breathed cleaner air thanks to the Clean Air Act. Unfortunately, that process is now at risk due to extreme heat and wildfires, fueled by climate change, and policy changes that are making the problem worse.”

The Clean Air Act became effective in 1963. This is the 27th edition of the State of the Air report, which was first released in 2000. The report has reflected the act’s successes over the years, but over the past decade, also the challenges of the changing climate, the American Lung Association said.

“Increases in high ozone days and spikes in particle pollution related to extreme heat, drought and wildfires are putting millions of people at risk and adding challenges to the work that states and cities are doing across the nation to clean up air pollution,” the report said.

The authors of the State of the Air report noted that levels of unhealthy air vary widely across the country and that people of color disproportionately live in areas with poor scores. A person of color is 2.42 times as likely as a white person to live in an area with poor scores for all three air pollution measures.

For the seventh year in a row, Bakersfield, Calif., was the metropolitan area with the worst level of year-round particle pollution. Fairbanks, Ala., moved to the worst spot for short-term particle pollution. Los Angeles remained the metropolitan area with the worst ozone pollution. It’s held that spot for 26 years of the report’s 27-year history.

Only one city – Bangor, Maine – had good marks in all three measures.

In county rankings, San Bernardino in California had the highest level of ozone pollution; the five worst counties in the country in this measure were all in California. In short-term particle pollution, Fairbanks North Star Borough in Alaska was ranked as the worst. In long-term particle pollution, Kern County in California held that spot.

Twenty counties throughout the United States had failing grades for all three measures of air pollution: Maricopa in Arizona; Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, Stanislaus and Tulare in California; Lake and Marion in Indiana; Wayne County in Michigan; Butler and Cuyahoga in Ohio; Allegheny, Dauphin and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; and Bexar County in Texas.