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| Taken from Two Liverpool Fans |
Date of Birth: - 25th July 1986
Nationality: - Brazilian
Height: - 5ft 11inches.
Position: - Striker (but is extremely versatile as he can play either Wing, behind the Striker, the main Striker etc).
Club History
- Vitoria
- Kawasaki Frontale (loan)
- Kawasaki Frontale
- Consadole Sapporo (loan)
- Tokyo Verdy (loan)
- Tokyo Verdy
- Porto.
Linked With
- Chelsea
- Manchester United
- Manchester City
- Arsenal
(Other interest may be from the likes of Germany, Spain, Italy and perhaps France).
Estimated Market Value: - Around 34 million Euros.
Hulk’s Time In Japan
After making only 1 senior appearance for Vitoria in his home state of Brazil, Hulk was offered the opportunity to further his career from Brazil by a move to Asia, and in particular the country of Japan.
The original move from Vitoria was only a loan move, however after making 9 appearances and scoring 1 goal, Hulk seemed to impress Kawasaki enough for them to sign him permanently.
| Taken from Kawasaki Frontale’s Official Website |
However, much to many peoples dismay, Kawasaki opted to loan Hulk out immediately to second division side Consadole (a league lower than Kawasaki) in order for the young man to gain experience and to adapt further into the cultural changes of Japan from Brazil.
During this spell, Hulk dominated the league at the young age of 19 as he scored 25 goals as well as playing every single game of the Japanese second division league (Hulk finished second-top scorer for the overall division).
After this loan spell finished, many people were expecting Hulk to then go back to Kawasaki and begin having regular first-team action and show people what he did in the second division, however this was not the case. As soon as Hulk’s loan spell had expired with Consadole, he was instantly loaned back out to Tokyo Verdy.
With this in mind, Hulk had a bit of a point to prove as he was blatantly being overlooked and many argued, very wrongly so. Hulk then once again dominated the second division with Verdy, as he scored an astonishing 37 goals in 42 games as he finished top-scorer of the division by a clear mile.
| Hulk in Tokyo Verdy colors in a tussle with now Inter Milan left back, Nagatomo (Taken from Goles de Oriente) |
This seemed still not enough for Kawasaki, as after Verdy made a bid as soon as the season was over, it was rather quickly accepted. After spending the first 6 months with Verdy and competing in 11 matches (scoring 8 goals), Porto then acquired the 21 year old Brazilian for a fee of 5.5 million Euros.
FC Porto
| Taken from the Daily Mirror |
Due to pre-season injuries of fellow FC Porto team-mates, Hulk was given a long awaited opportunity at the start of the 2008/2009 season and scored in his first appearance for Porto against Os Belenenses coming on as a second half substitute. In the following game, it was an exact imitation as he once again came on a substitute and scored against Pacos de Ferreira.
As the season progressed, Hulk became a more prominent starter, forming an attacking trio with Cristian Rodriguez and Lisandro Lopez, with the trio often shifting positions and rotating during games which caused opponents numerous issues. After some impressive performances in the season’s UEFA Champions League, Hulk was elected as one of the Top 10 Rising Stars by UEFA in May 2009.
August 2009 - Hulk extended his contract to June 2014, with a buy-out clause increased to 100 million Euro’s.
In the 2009/2010 season, Hulk established himself as an automatic first-choice.
20th December 2009 - However, following a tunnel brawl during the league loss at S.L. Benfica (0-1), Hulk received a four month ban from the game, but after a successful appeal the ban was later reduced to four matches instead.
28th March 2010 - After serving the four-match ban, Hulk returned to league action by scoring in a 3-0 win at Belenenses and one week later, he once again found the net in a 4-1 home victory over C.S. Marítimo.
Hulk started the 2010/2011 season in impressive fashion, scoring sixteen times in his first sixteen official matches.
| Taken from Emmanuelle Oliveira |
26th August 2010 - Hulk scored a hat-trick against K.R.C. Genk for the UEFA Europa League’s playoff stage. (4–2 home win, 7–2 on aggregate).
From September to January he won the Portuguese Championship Player of the Month, making him the only player to have won the award six times.
7th November 2010 - Hulk scored the last two goals as Porto trounced Benfica 5-0 at home, creating a 10-point difference between the two teams (with Porto at the top of the table) with Porto eventually winning it, all with Hulk leading the goalscoring charts.
13th May 2011 - Hulk signed a further deal until 2016 and with a buy-out clause of 120 million Euros. He then finished the season with 36 goals in 53 official games, with his team winning four major titles, including a league/cup double, as well as the Europa League.
| Taken from Demotix |
During the 2011/2012 season, Hulk scored 21 goals in 38 appearances and had a very solid season once again as Porto won the Portuguese League Title once again.
Club Statistics
Kawasaki: - 15 appearances, 3 goals.
Consadole: - 41 appearances, 26 goals.
Tokyo Verdy: - 56 appearances, 45 goals.
FC Porto: - 166 appearances, 76 goals and 55 assists.
General Comments
I’d like to start this profile off by saying that I have missed a significant chunk of this profile out, and that section is based on ownership. With players such as Hulk, there is a hell of a lot of ‘ownership’ issues. What I mean by this, is it’s possible for clubs to pay for ‘parts’ of players.
Porto now own 85% of Hulk, and the rest is still owned by an independent force in Uruguay as I understand it. It’s very difficult to explain, but use the example I gave you and it’ll help you out.
Anyway, I believe there is much debate regarding Hulk’s ability, and I’ve only been made aware of this in the past few weeks when studying up for this profile. Many people believe Hulk to be overrated and all hype.
I for one, am not one of those individuals, however I do understand why people may say this. To start with the negatives on the player, he is a tad inconsistent on some occasions.
The thing is, I find that most people who deem him as overrated have only watched him in the Europa League of Champions League - in other words, only watched him for a few games.
I do understand that Hulk does fail to turn up in some games, and seems to get his knickers in a twist so to speak if he doesn’t get things his own way, but arguably, doesn’t nearly every player nowadays?
On the other hand, Hulk is a very, very good player in my opinion. When this kid turns up for games, boy does he turn up. Hulk has strength, power, accuracy, passing ability, technical ability and a general great footballing brain. This player is genuinely fantastic in my opinion, as demonstrated by statistics. Now, I am first to preach to never trust to statistics, but Hulk’s statistics do not lie.
He is a goal machine, and when he isn’t scoring goals, he’s setting them up. He is without doubt one of my favourite player in modern football, as he tries to stay on his feet at all time, is a powerhouse and has an absolute bullet of a shot.
When Hulk connects with a strike, he rifles the ball straight through the net. He is a class act. I have seen him time after time make those runs that attract attention of the defenders which free up his team-mates, I have seen him drop deep in midfield and act as a playmaker, and I have seen him dart up and down a wing and whip in dream crosses. In my opinion, he really has it all.
Now, onto the business side of things. I know there has been much speculation regarding his future recently due to Sly Sports etc, but I brought to you via the members area a week or two ago that Hulk was officially in talks with Chelsea.
Now, as I understand it, personal terms are not an issue, but what seems to be the issue is Porto’s evaluation of a player. I unfortunately cannot get an exact figure, but I understand Chelsea are not willing to pay this valuation of him.
However, negotiations are still possible with regards to the fee, so although talks seem to have been stopped for now, these things could easily change and Chelsea could come back and propose an offer that is acceptable to Porto, in which case Hulk could be on the move to Chelsea.
As for Hulk’s agent claiming that he could move to 4 Premier League teams, then yes that is possibly true, but unlikely. Arsenal would no way pay the fee for Hulk that Porto are demanding, and for me, if City or United get Hazard, then you can rule the one that gets Hazard out of the race for Hulk.
To summarise, I would say if Hulk moves to the Premier League, it would be with Chelsea at the moment in my opinion, but it all depends on the negotiations with regards to the fees etc.
Written by Reece Warren
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