Manchester United goalkeeper Joel Castro Pereira is proud of his six month loan at Belenenses.

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 told manutd.com 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."