Manchester United ace Pereira has been called up by Brazil for friendlies against the United States and El Salvador.
The 22-year-old is finally ready to kick on at Old Trafford after successful loan spells away at Granada and Valencia.
Pereira started Manchester United’s first two league games of the season, against Leicester and Brighton, impressing in a central midfield role alongside Paul Pogba and Fred.
The playmaker is set to play for Brazil but is also illegible for Belgium, where his parents were born.
And Pereira has revealed Lukaku tried to talk him into choosing the Red Devils, but he ultimately settled on Brazil.
“He tried to convince me,” he told Brazilian newspaper Globo Esporte.
“He spoke to me: ‘You have to play for Belgium’. He came to talk to me, he’s always talking to me.
“I told him ‘it’s difficult, Lukaku, can’t do it, it’s not the same. Playing for Belgium is something else.
“Playing for Selecao… It’s Brazil, I feel at home’.
“Then he said: ‘If that’s the way it is, you have to follow your heart’. And then he respected my decision.”
Brazil were knocked out of the World Cup by Belgium earlier this summer.
The Samba superstars lost 2-1 courtesy of a Fernandinho own-goal and a Kevin De Bruyne strike.
And Pereira has admitted the defeat was hard for him to take.
“It was complicated,” he said.
“I was in Belgium watching and it was difficult to see Brazil lose.
“Everybody messing with me. Wow, it was… I was very angry.
“My friend, I have a friend from Belgium, I was watching with him.
“I couldn’t do it, I left the room, I was very… I got very mad.
“And they all messed, my father’s friends saying ‘wow, look at Brazil there, you have to choose Belgium, you have to choose Belgium’.
“I said, ‘wow, I can’t do it, I can’t do it’.”
Pereira could next feature for United when they go up against Watford on 15 September.
The Red Devils will go into that match on a high after Lukaku struck twice to down Burnley 2-0 yesterday afternoon.