Monday, July 5, 2021 at 5:24 PM• Chris Meijer

RKC Waalwijk has strengthened itself with Joel Pereira. The Waalwijkers announce through the official channels that the 25-year-old Portuguese goalkeeper has signed a one-year contract, with an option for another season. RKC takes over Pereira on a free transfer from Manchester United, where his contract had expired.

Born in Switzerland, Pereira played in the youth academy of Neuchâtel Xamax in his native country, where Manchester United snatched him in 2012. The closing post – who played youth internationals for both Switzerland and Portugal and most recently was active for Young Portugal – was then under contract with the English superpower for nine years. In that period he made three appearances in the main squad of Manchester United.

Jose Mourinho let Pereira make his FA Cup debut for Manchester United in 2017 against Wigan Athletic. He then also kept a Premier League game with Crystal Palace and an EFL Cup game against Burton Albion. However, Pereira spent most of his time outside of Manchester in recent years, as he was loaned out no fewer than six times: successively to Rochdale, Belenenses, Vitória Setúbal, KV Kortrijk, Hearts and Huddersfield Town. In the past season, he was twice under the bar in the Championship on behalf of the latter club.

Now Pereira is the second summer acquisition of RKC after Iliass Bel Hassani, which only had one goalkeeper in the selection after Kostas Lamprou left for PEC Zwolle and Mike Grim with Etienne Vaessen. “With the arrival of Joel, we are bringing in a goalkeeper with a lot of potential, who also has the necessary experience,” says general manager Frank van Mosselveld on the RKC website. “He was educated at Manchester United and during that period he made a lot of flying hours. Here in Waalwijk he gets the opportunity to further develop himself and together with him we will go for the maximum achievable.”