How Bruno Fernandes Compares to Paul Scholes, David Beckham After 200 Premier League Appearances

While Manchester United have often drifted into obscurity in the years succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, it hasn’t been all doom and gloom at the Theatre of Dreams.

The highs relative to the dynastical reign over English football are pretty tame, but trophies have continued to be added to the Red Devils’ busy cabinet since Fergie oversaw his final Premier League title success in 2013.

Bruno Fernandes has been through it all since joining the club from Sporting CP in early 2020. The latest face of the Red Devils certainly wouldn’t have looked out of place in the far more dominant iterations of yesteryear, but Fernandes is also associated with some of the club’s lowest ebbs.

Big result and performance 💪🏼

Very happy to make my 200th appearance in the @premierleague and score my 100th goal for the club 🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/TtTVce8cyR
— Bruno Fernandes (@B_Fernandes8) September 20, 2025

Fernandes’s unwillingness to shirk responsibility in times of strife has seen him gain admiration, often fronting up to the media in the aftermath of the freshest United humiliation. His legacy when it’s all said and done may be tricky to nail down, but plenty would label the Portuguese international a modern-day Man Utd great.

He’s one of very few contemporary Red Devils to garner praise from the standout cogs of Fergie’s wheel, including Paul Scholes, who once said Fernandes was “better” than him, and David Beckham, who claimed that United would be foolish to sell their “exceptional” captain ahead of the 2025 summer transfer window.

Fernandes has since become the 28th Man Utd player to notch 200 Premier League appearances, matching a milestone once reached by Beckham and Scholes. Here’s how Fernandes’s record compares to the English duo through 200 league outings for the Red Devils.

Goals

Paul Scholes — Scholes was an effective box crasher at the start of his career. | Ross Kinnaird/Allsport/Getty Images

Fernandes is a fearsome ball-striker from distance, and some of his Premier League goals have been outstanding, but more than a third of his 64 strikes in the competition have come from the penalty spot (22).

The 31-year-old celebrated his 200th Premier League appearance by scoring the opener in Saturday’s 2–1 victory over Chelsea. Fernandes’s volley was his 100th United goal, and he became just the third Red Devils midfielder in history to net 100 times for the club.

Scholes ended his one-club career with 155 goals, but he’d scored 17 fewer than Fernandes through 200 Premier League outings. Unlike the Portuguese, United academy graduate Scholes wasn’t used relentlessly at the start of his senior career, with 52 of his first 200 appearances in the competition arriving off the bench.

Before evolving into a measured deep-lying controller, Scholes was a scrappy box-crasher with a superb sense of timing.

Beckham, meanwhile, was similarly capable of the spectacular and semi-reliant upon set-pieces like Fernandes. Ten of Beckham’s 44 Premier League goals after 200 appearances came via direct free-kicks.

Assists

Few have ever been able to cross a football like David Beckham. | Michael Steele/Allsport

Only Beckham (62) has recorded more Man Utd assists through 200 Premier League games than Fernandes (51).

Few have ever been able to deliver into the box like Becks, who typically started wide right in Ferguson’s 4-4-2 but was capable of shifting infield when the Scot eventually adjusted for European competition and deployed a three-man midfield or, on occasions, a diamond.

The likes of Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Dwight Yorke were beneficiaries of Beckham’s outstanding crossing ability. Fernandes, meanwhile, has served a less reliable group of centre forwards, but has enjoyed the proficiency of Edinson Cavani and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Fernandes is certainly a more varied playmaker than his English counterparts, but he’s mightily inefficient, too. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again is very much his motto.

Scholes recorded just 26 assists in his first 200 Premier League outings, and would end his career with just 52 in 477 games. His assist rate unsurprisingly faded during his later evolution into a serene holding midfielder. He had every pass in his arsenal, but directly teeing up teammates was never his forte.

Trophies

Bruno Fernandes has lifted both domestic cups with the Red Devils. | Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Fernandes competes with and betters Beckham and Scholes statistically, but the English duo thump the current Man Utd captain on the silverware front.

While Fernandes has spearheaded United teams that have finished second and third in the Premier League, he hasn’t come close to inspiring the Red Devils to the title.

By the time he made his 200th Premier League appearance in 2001, Beckham had starred in four title-winning campaigns, while Scholes had contributed heavily to five successes. The pair also won the FA Cup twice, and conquered Europe in 1999. Scholes would’ve joined Beckham in the starting XI for the final if he wasn’t suspended due to yellow card accumulation.

Fernandes has squandered two opportunities to win the Europa League, and his performance in United’s crushing defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao drew plenty of criticism. However, the 31-year-old does have an FA Cup and League Cup in his back pocket.