A hundred million dollar footballer who has never played in the top five leagues. Who is this?

This is no joke. This player has been paid over €110 million by various clubs and yet we have never seen him play in any of the top five football leagues. This is Brazilian footballer Givanildo Vieira de Souza, known to most fans by his nickname Hulk.

The Brazilian player has an interesting football story behind him. He started professional football in his native Brazil, at the club EC Vitória. But at the age of 18, he moved, and to an unusual environment. He chose the Japanese city of Kawasaki as his next home.

However, he didn’t stay there very long, because after half a season he went on loan to the second Japanese league, where he scored 25 goals in one season. In the following years, he expanded his scoring account in other Japanese clubs and it didn’t take long before European clubs started circling around him.

Moving to European territory

The attacking all-rounder was eventually acquired by Porto in 2008 for just under €20 million. Although it may have been a very surprising move at first, time has shown that the Portuguese club was not wrong at the time. Hulk has become an indispensable part of the squad.

In five years, he became four times league champion, lifted the Portuguese Cup three times and was also a Europa League winner.

Next stops – Zenit St. Petersburg, Russia, China and Brazil

In 2012, the 180 centimetres tall footballer decided to move to Zenit St. Petersburg for €40 million, despite being on the radar of famous clubs such as Real Madrid and Chelsea. He subsequently became Russian Footballer of the Year and Russian Champion in the 2015/16 season.

Then, at the age of 29, he couldn’t resist a lucrative cash offer and left for China for almost €56 million. He currently plays for Brazilian club Atlético-MG, where he was last year’s player of the season.

Although many people remember Hulk for his hard shots from distance, the burly Brazilian has also been dogged by many scandals during his career. In 2009, he fought with a security guard in a tunnel after a game against Benfica and faced up to a four-month ban from football, which was subsequently reduced to four games.

Further uproar was caused by his relationship with his ex-wife’s niece, with whom he had his fourth child. The career of the famous footballer Hulk has been a chequered one. The question is how much longer we will be able to see him, at the age of thirty-six, on the football pitch.

Sources: Transfermarkt, Goal