In 2012, Porto’s Hulk silenced Benfica fans who were racially abusing him, in superb fashion with a rocket of a strike.
In the early stages of the Primeira Liga game, Hulk was being subjected to vile monkey chants by home supporters at Estadio da Luz.
It was happening as he picked up the ball on the right flank and faced the left-back. After cutting in on his sledgehammer of a left peg, Hulk unleashed a thunderbolt into the top corner.
The pace, power and movement of the strike was too much for Arthur Moraes to handle. After all, it was 108km/h – one of the hardest hits in football history.
Hulk celebrated with his teammates and the home fans fell silent. The worldie put Porto 1-0 up in the seventh minute and they went on to win 3-2, with Defender Maicon scoring a late header in the 87th minute.
After moving to Zenit, Hulk said he experienced racism in “almost every game”.
“I must say that almost every game I see this happening,” the Brazilian is quoted as saying by The Guardian.
“I used to get angry, but now I see this doesn’t help, so I just send a kiss to our fans and try not to get angry.”
Having left Shanghai SIPG, the 34-year-old recently returned to Brazil with Atletico Mineiro and showed off his freakish strength on his debut by bodying an opponent and sending him flying.
Olha o Hulk, meus amigos… O melhor: juizão não deu nada! Segue o jogo!
Acompanhe a reta final de Atlético-MG x Uberlândia https://t.co/tKJwdgD0CT pic.twitter.com/kqGkjkbYlD
— ge (@geglobo) March 8, 2021
Interestingly, it’s emerged that the jacked winger can lose an incredible 11lb in 90 minutes and needs “extra attention” to stay hydrated.
“He sweats a lot, that doesn’t mean he is bad,” physio Roberto Chiari said, per talkSPORT.
“In fact, the athlete who sweats a lot uses the most efficient mechanism of dissipating body heat, which is through sweating. This sweat, when it evaporates, allows the athlete to lose body heat in a more efficient way. So, losing many pounds by dehydrating through sweating is not the problem.
“It just requires that we pay extra attention to hydration.
“Our masseuse, who is next to the field, already knows that at each stop in training the first player who has to receive water or isotonic is the Hulk, because he will dehydrate a lot.”