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Published 07:18 5 Sept 2018 BST
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"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 the Brazilian national team… It’s Brazil, I feel at home’. Then Lukaku said: ‘If that’s the way it is, you have to follow your heart’.
"And then he respected my decision."
Pereira's friends didn't make his decision any easier during the World Cup, when they mocked Brazil's elimination at the hands of Belgium in the semi-finals.
The 22-year-old was urged to make himself available to Martinez but Pereira defied everyone and stayed true to his dream of pulling on the famous yellow jersey.
"It was complicated. I was in Belgium watching and it was difficult to see Brazil lose. Everybody messing with me. Wow, it was… I was very angry," he told Globo Esporte, via Manchester Evening News.
"I have a friend from Belgium and I was watching it with him.
"I couldn’t do it, I left the room, I got very mad.
"And they all had a laugh, my father’s friends saying ‘wow, look at Brazil there, you have to choose Belgium, you have to choose Belgium’. "I said, 'I can’t do it, I can’t do it’."The SportsJOE Friday Pub Quiz: Week 137
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