In the 27th episode of the series “Ironias do Destino”, Pinto da Costa recalls winning the championship in 2007/08 and the arrival of Hulk at FC Porto, in a transfer that, at the time, intrigued the sphere of national football.
Three-time champion in 2007/08: “It was a very interesting championship, Jesualdo’s second victory in a row, we had a great team, a player who was the basis for many years in FC Porto’s successes, Helton. Perhaps, no one has ever given him the merit and value he deserves. He was the basis of that great team. We had fantastic players, like Lucho, Lisandro, Quaresma… A good team, we won with 20 points ahead, the consecration was against Estrela da Amadora, with a victory by 6-0. Several important players scored, it was a great performance in a magnificent season. FC Porto had a very good team, they played good football, a year that I consider excellent for the quality of the team and the way they played.”
Hulk’s arrival at the club in the summer of 2008: “That year, we signed the Hulk, who was an unknown player, but who played in Japan, I believe in the III division. We managed to sign him under the influence of his manager. (…) We wanted to strengthen the team with a striker, but that it was within our possibilities, which were not many. A businessman appeared, the [Juan] Figer, who introduced us to a player. It guaranteed us quality, we watched videos and there was a curious aspect. He said that the player knew Portugal, that he could adapt because he had played for Vilanovense. That surprised me, because Vilanovense, being a club with a history in Gaia, never had a great football team nor reached the top levels. How is it that an individual who had been in Vilanovense and hadn’t caught on, because he was 17 at the time, wouldn’t have made everyone notice him? Nobody, neither at FC Porto, nor at any other club, foresaw what it could become.”
Hulk’s “promise” and his importance at FC Porto: “I remember the Hulk telling that, when he was at Vilanovense, he came to see FC Porto games with a man from the club. At 17, playing for Vilanovense, he said: ‘I’ll play here in this stadium, in this club ‘. Irony of fate, the fact is that going to Japan, when I no longer expected to return to Portugal, I had that opportunity, won and was a very important player in the great successes we had and in which he was present. He and Helton were the ones The main keys to those successes. He was a player who left history, he was very attached to FC Porto and to the fans. Everyone remembers him. He was one of those acquisitions in which I think we hit the nail on the head.”
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