Goal.com 50: Hulk (23)

Rarely before has a player required so little time to affirm himself amongst the world’s best and brightest after taking so long to burst onto the scene like Hulk did. In 2008, the striker, then 22 years old, joined Porto as an unknown figure, even in his homeland, and just one year later he had the world at his feet.

In his first season at the Estadio do Dragao, Hulk, who had cost Porto €5.5 million, formed an impressive attacking trio with Lisandro Lopez and Cristian Rodriguez and pulled off some eye-catching displays in the Champions League, especially against Atletico Madrid, which earned him comparisons in the Spanish media with Ronaldo.

Having realised all the buzz that Hulk was generating in Europe after just one year at the club, Porto offered him a two-year contract extension, while upping his release clause from €40 million to €100m - the highest buy-out clause ever used in Portugal.

"It may sound like a heresy, but I would not trade Hulk for Cristiano Ronaldo." - Pinto da Costa, Porto president

On 20 December. 2009, Hulk attacked a steward at a 1-0 loss at Benfica following a tunnel brawl, an incident captured on CCTV images. The Brazilian was initially suspended for four months, but in March, the Justice Council of the Portuguese Football Federation reduced the ban to just three matches, when the player had already sat out of 17 games. As a result of his initial ban, Hulk only took part in eight domestic matches in the second half of the season and was left out of Dunga's plans for the World Cup in South Africa.

After such a frustrating year, Hulk headed into the 2010-11 season determined to prove that Porto's fortunes in the previous campaign would have been much different, had he not been handed what he called an "unfair ban".