Hulk, the abyss and the last hope: logic prevails | OneFootball

Friends, I can't get the overwhelming image of the soap opera dragging between Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro out of my head. Today, the headlines, with that typical coldness of those who have no blood in their veins, announce that the final chapter has been written, that Hulk stays at Atlético, that Fluminense is out of the race. Really? I ask at the height of over 50 years following these blood and tear serials.

I tell you, with the humility of someone who has seen the truth enter the stadium booed and leave applauded: there's still a lot of game left. The obvious, which escapes the pocket mathematicians but screams in the ears of those who know the soul of the crowds, is that money is not just painted paper. It's blood, it's sweat, it's the panic of an empty safe and a soul in tatters.

Let's get to the facts, bare and raw like an Ibsen character. There's talk of a salary fit for a nabob, in the range of three million. Do the math, if you dare! Atlético Mineiro, to keep the player there, this physical entity known as Hulk, would have to shell out, over 2026, something over 60 million reais. It's a fortune capable of buying the dignity of a small country!

I explain my simple math: there's talk of a salary in the range of three million. Add what everyone pretends to forget — charges, severance fund, taxes, vacations, thirteenth salary, this bureaucratic rosary that no one prays, but every club pays — and we reach the monstrous, almost biblical figure: more than sixty million in a single year to support an entity that, ironically, might not even be treated as an absolute starter — and won't be.

And for what? I ask! To keep a man who is visibly torn by doubt and dissatisfaction. The player has already said, or hinted with the subtlety of an elephant in the living room, that Galo's sports project smells like formaldehyde, retirement, flannel pajamas.

Even more tragic: Atlético's coach, this Sampaoli guy, looks at Hulk not as a titan, but as a piece of old furniture that doesn't fit the decor. The man doesn't want to use him! It's the ultimate humiliation! Imagine, Hulk, with those indelible marks in football history, like sculptures carved by Michelangelo, sitting on the bench, biting his nails, while the club burns 60 million on the bonfire of vanity.

Is the player professional? Yes, of course he is. But life as it is teaches us that the motivation of a rejected man is that of a public servant on the eve of a holiday. He follows the protocol, clocks in, but the soul... ah, the soul has already flown out the window! He has already warned that 2027 will not see him in Minas. The divorce is announced, only the papers need to be signed.

And here lies the drama, the Shakespearean crossroads of Galo. We reach July and Hulk, free as a bird, signs with whoever he wants — read, with Fluminense — and leaves for free at the end of the year. Atlético will have paid 60 million to see their idol leave without leaving a penny in the cash register, only the longing and the loss.

Therefore, don't come to me with half-truths. Logic, that relentless lady, suggests the opposite of what the rumors say. Either Atlético releases him now and saves this obscene fortune, or embraces the financial corpse until December.

That's why I say, trembling with emotion: there's still samba. Destiny is capricious and the tricolor passion is a gravitational force. Hulk doesn't fit on a bench; he needs a stage, a tragedy, a glory. And Laranjeiras, my friends, Laranjeiras awaits him like a last train in the night: either he boards and saves the night, or passes empty and leaves only the cold.

Fluminense doesn't just want a player; Fluminense wants the impossible, and the impossible sometimes wears the number 7 jersey and goes by the nickname superhero.

By the way: yes, I'm a fan of Hulk; yes, I want to see him at Flu and, finally; yes, I think he still has a lot of firewood to burn.

ST

Washington de Assis

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.