JOEL PEREIRA TAKING IT "STEP BY STEP"
Manchester United have a good record for producing goalkeepers and Joel Castro Pereira, newly returned to the club after a successful loan spell with Belenenses, can justifiably hope to achieve his goals here.
When you have arguably the world's best keeper in David De Gea and Argentina's no.1 Sergio Romero as deputy, there is no better place to learn your trade but there can still be lofty aspirations of fighting your way into the reckoning. As Pereira stresses, it is all about taking things "step by step" and he has certainly ticked all the boxes so far since arriving from Neuchatel Xamax in Switzerland in 2012.
From a star-struck kid watching the first-teamers in the canteen on his first visit to the Aon Training Complex, he has progressed into one of the most talked-about young goalkeepers in Europe. Jose Mourinho name-checked him at a recent press conference, explaining why the youngster was being recalled to become third choice, with Sam Johnstone departing to Aston Villa for the rest of the season.
Within a matter of days, the 20-year-old was on the bench for the second time (he was also a substitute against Midtjylland last season) as Romero performed in the FA Cup victory over Reading at Old Trafford. He may have enjoyed some action in the Reserves against Manchester City and Liverpool, keeping a clean sheet at Anfield, but is working closely with the senior squad and is thrilled to have that opportunity.
"Jose Mourinho is an incredible manager," Pereira tells ManUtd.com. "He's won everything and it is amazing to train under him. I've always loved him as a coach and also, of course, because he's Portuguese. He has done a lot for Portuguese football and I think that all of Portugal is proud of him.
"It's good to be considered a first-team player now and I'm training every day with the first team and in the changing room with them. I think it's very good for me and my development too.
"I get to work with world-class players as well. We have amazing strikers who are very good finishers so, of course, it is very good for me and I learn a lot every day."
Although born in Switzerland, Pereira is tipped to represent Portugal's senior side one day - he has already played in the Toulon trophy (winning the Goalkeeper of the Tournament award) and been part of the Olympic squad.
"It was the first time I've played in the Portuguese league," he says of his stint at Belenenses. "People only knew me from the international teams so I think it was important that people were talking well about me. People talk about you if you do well and I think it's just football. I just want everyone to have a good image of me as a football player and also as a person. That's it. It was very good experience, I was happy to be there and can only thank the club for what they've done for me."
Pereira can be pleased with his performances during his loan, as was the case during a previous stay away from United with Rochdale. He continues to improve and showed his capabilities against the biggest teams in the Portuguese top flight.
"United were always watching my games," he recounts. "The manager always had feedback from the staff about my performance. [The club's Head of Academy Goalkeeping] Alan Fettis would call me every week about the match at the weekend and ask how it went and how did I do. Everything like that.
"I loved it and it was very good experience for me. I learned a lot and played a lot of games. The club was fantastic - everyone was very nice to me and welcomed me so they were sad too when I left. We played against Benfica, Porto and Sporting [Lisbon] and it was good to play against these clubs in front of big crowds."
The keeper recalls two "special saves" against Benfica and Sporting and feels it was the right time to prove his worth in a top division. Fettis told us how competitive the youngster is, in an interview three years ago, and former Reserves coach Warren Joyce also highlighted the confidence of the shot-stopper. At the end of 2014, when tasked with the difficult task of identifying youngsters to look out for, I included Pereira on my list. Yet did the loan help strengthen that feeling he was ripe for senior football?
"In some ways," he replies. "I think everything in life you have to do step by step. I feel I'm ready for the next step and I'm thinking about now and training well. I want to train hard, prove myself in training and see how it goes. I think it's important to be confident on the pitch because then your team-mates can have confidence in the goalkeeper."
So does he have those ambitions of playing for United and Portugal's first teams? "These are my goals but now I'm just focused on training and doing well," he counters. "I must prove myself each day, going step by step.
"We will see what happens. I prefer to think about now rather than think too far ahead. It's step by step, like I said, and my focus is fully in training, to prove myself to the manager and show him that I have progressed in the last six months."
The evidence would suggest he has certainly matured, and continues to develop at the required rate. Joel Castro Pereira has already been a step away from a first-team appearance this month, in that FA Cup clash with Reading, and can rightly hope for the day he emulates his hero Edwin van der Sar by donning the gloves for the Reds.
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