He was crowned the league's top scorer once. Hulk made his international debut in , and played for Brazil at the Summer Olympics as one of the three permitted over-age players. He is described by FIFA 's official website as "a direct powerhouse of a centre- or wide-forward who knows his way around the box".
In , he was loaned again to a second division team , Tokyo Verdy , [ 8 ] where he was even more effective, scoring 37 goals in 42 matches and being the top goal scorer of the season. He briefly returned [ 9 ] to Kawasaki in and rejoined Verdy [ 10 ] after only 18 matches. When Moroccan teammate Tarik Sektioui suffered an injury, Hulk was given an opportunity to play forward and scored his first official domestic league goal for Porto in a 2β0 home win against C.
Os Belenenses , later adding against F. In the β10 season , Hulk established as an automatic first-choice. However, following a tunnel brawl during the league loss against S. Hulk started the β11 season scoring 16 times in his first 16 official matches, including a hat-trick against K. On 7 November , he scored the last two goals as Porto trounced Benfica 5β0 at home, creating a ten-point difference between the two teams, [ 19 ] with the northerners leading the league, and eventually winning it, with the player leading the goalscoring charts.
On 7 April , Hulk scored the solitary goal as Porto defeated S. Braga away to go four points clear at the top of the Primeira Liga table. In May , he was voted the Player of the Month for April for a record sixth time, [ 24 ] and he added 11 assists , a competition best. Hulk scored his first goal for his new club in only his second league match, against FC Krylia Sovetov Samara , finding the net with a trademark shot from outside the box in a 2β2 away draw. In the second half of September, media speculation reported that teammates Igor Denisov and Aleksandr Kerzhakov were unsatisfied with Hulk's wage, and that they demanded renegotiation of their contracts.
As a result, they were sent to the youth squad. And respect for the Russian players which Zenit has always relied upon". A few weeks later, he scored his first Champions League goal for Zenit and provided an assist in a 3β2 loss against A. Milan in the second matchday of group stage. After falling out with head coach Luciano Spalletti , Hulk declared he was seeking to leave the club in January.
