INCREDIBLE HULK!

LIKE all Brazilian players, Hulk has a lengthy name — Givanildo Vieira de Sousa —  which is best remembered by himself. The robust player loves to be called Hulk as, perhaps, it fills him with an incredible energy to physically impose himself on the pitch and negate all challenges.

“I love to be called Hulk,” the 30-year-old said during a media interaction as he trained in Doha for the fourth year, this time with his new team Shanghai SIPG. “Every time I enter the field, my intention is to give 100 per cent. I want to play right through all games.”

Hulk’s performance reached a crescendo at Porto as he intimidated rivals with his bulldozing runs along the right wing and eventually helped the Portuguese club win the Europa League, forming a deadly partnership with fellow-South American Radamel Falcao.

It was a fairy-tale run for the player who, as a 20-year-old, moved to Japan, where he plied his trade with Second Division clubs Consadole Sapporo and Tokyo Verdy before getting the Porto call in 2008.

And later, while Falcao joined Atletico Madrid, Hulk opted to move away from the spotlight to join Russia’s Zenit Saint Petersburg on a €56m deal. Hulk braved the biting cold and some of the harshest of racial abuses to deliver. That seems to have further toughened his resolve as he made an easy plunge into Shanghai. As Chinese journalists shot questions in Mandarin, Hulk kept constantly smiling. Uncharted waters do not seem to make him shy any longer.

“I played three-and-a-half years in Japan and four years in Russia. Thank God, everywhere I went, I made history. And I’m looking forward to pulling off a new slice of it in the Chinese Super League, which is a new competition but growing steadily,” said Hulk.

“Football is the same everywhere. Regardless of where I play, I always give it my best. I’m very grateful to football and I always want to play at my highest level,” he said.

In Russia and China, one aspect that helped Hulk’s smooth transition was the presence of young Portuguese coach Andre Villas-Boas, an association that started in Porto.

“I’ve a great relationship with coach Andre. Despite being young, he has a lot of experience. He’s very passionate about the game and has great confidence in his job. At the training, he makes his ideas clear by constantly screaming and passing his instructions to us. Outside the field, he’s a friend of mine, but inside, he’s my coach and I’ve utmost respect for him,” said Hulk, about the 39-year-old.

And Hulk, with his matured outlook and varied experience, has certainly influenced star players like Oscar, who moved to China this month on a €68m contract.

“I said to him that Shanghai is a beautiful city, the club is fantastic and we’ll get even better in the coming years,” said Hulk, about his conversation with Oscar, who has been his Brazil team-mate for long.

“I also said our team-mates are very friendly and welcoming, which makes me feel pretty good. After hearing what I told him, he came.

“Each new player is coming to help the team and I believe Oscar will help us a lot. The level of the team has improved a lot, obviously, and I think we’ll win the title next season,” Hulk added.

And what he will want is Shanghai fans to chant his name, for he knows it will pump incredible energy in him to initiate those bulldozing runs.