The greatest moment in Hull City‘s Premier League history began with Geovanni trying to go home.
‘I was ill all night, I barely slept at all,’ says Geovanni, who was gripped by a fever and thumping headache less than 24 hours before he was due to walk out at Arsenal‘s Emirates Stadium in September 2008. The Brazilian rang his wife from the team hotel to tell her he was coming home and planned to have someone pick him up.
Thankfully, his wife Roberta would not hear of it.
‘God really used her that day,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘She said: “Geovanni, stay there, God will honour you. Hang on and tomorrow try to get a bit of sleep.”‘
When Hull staff came to his room the next morning, he asked to be left to sleep. He dosed up on medicine and went for lunch, but sat out the light pre-match training session with his temperature touching 38 degrees Celsius.
‘And then I got to that game, which was so spectacular,’ he says, ‘and I was able to score and help Hull beat Arsenal.’
Geovanni unleashes a spectacular equaliser for Hull at the Emirates Stadium back in September 2008
The goal inspired a famous comeback win for the Tigers, who became only the second team to win away at Arsenal
It was Hull’s first league meeting with Arsenal for 93 years, in the first top-flight season of the club’s then 104-year history.
Arsene Wenger’s side had started the day top of the table and Paul McShane’s own goal put Arsenal ahead after 51 minutes. Most expected the floodgates to open.
But 11 minutes later up stepped Hull’s brilliant Brazilian, a marquee signing from Manchester City in the summer of 2008 after the Tigers’ unexpected promotion.
Geovanni cut inside Theo Walcott and sent a 25-yard rocket into Manuel Almunia’s top corner. Daniel Cousin headed in a historic winner four minutes later and Hull became only the second side to beat Arsenal at the Emirates.
‘Beating Arsenal at the Emirates is very hard, and we pulled it off,’ says Geovanni, now 46, speaking from his home in Brazil. ‘That was a team of warriors, great players, and we had a really good friendship. And that day we walked away with a great win.’
On Saturday, Hull return to the Emirates to face the champions and league leaders. The Tigers are 11th after nine games. It is a strong start that few predicted.
‘Hull have to give 100 per cent, the maximum, be switched on the whole time,’ says Geovanni. ‘It’s difficult, but it’s not impossible, because Hull really did beat Arsenal.’
Eight days after the Emirates match, Geovanni did it again. A stunning 30-yard free-kick at White Hart Lane nestled into the top corner past his friend and compatriot Heurelho Gomes.
‘We beat Tottenham with Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, all those players,’ he says. ‘For me, those two are top-drawer. They’re two great players who left a mark on me.’
The win moved Hull into third and by the end of October they were level on points at the top. ‘London 0 Hull 2’ read the headline in the local paper, in reference to Hull band The Housemartins‘ 1986 album London 0 Hull 4, as the city revelled in its newfound fame.
Geovanni (centre) was part of another iconic Premier League moment, when Phil Brown gave his team a public dressing down at half-time of a loss at Manchester City
The Brazilian returned to Hull’s MKM Stadium last year and received a hero’s welcome
Geovanni took centre stage. Arriving on a free that summer after being released by Manchester City, he credits manager Phil Brown and assistant Brian Horton for giving him a second chance in the Premier League.
‘They were very special people in allowing me to stay in England, which was my dream,’ he says. ‘And I learned a lot from both of them. Brian was a very experienced coach, he played for Hull, he managed there, so the affection and respect are huge. Whenever I can talk about them, I do.
‘In the first year, Hull surprised a lot of people precisely because of the way we played. Sometimes we’d start in a 4-3-1-2, I played as the No10 behind two strikers. And if we were struggling to mark, I’d drop in to close down the left flank and we’d go back to a 4-4-2.’
The dressing room did the rest. Richard Garcia, an Australian winger with Uruguayan parents, helped translate team talks from English into Spanish and captain Ian Ashbee, Nicky Barmby and Bernard Mendy all made Geovanni feel welcome. ‘I’m really happy about the friendships I made in that dressing room,’ he says.
Geovanni was part of another of the Premier League’s most iconic moments, when he and his team-mates received a public dressing down from his manager on the pitch at half-time of a 5-1 loss to Manchester City on Boxing Day 2008. Eleven months later, Jimmy Bullard scored a penalty before recreating the telling off in celebration.
‘It was good for breaking the ice,’ says Geovanni. ‘From that day on the atmosphere got better too, because we can all make mistakes. The most important thing is to admit the mistake and move on.’
Geovanni’s finest moment for Manchester City, with whom he spent one season after stints with Barcelona, Benfica and Cruzeiro, came in the Manchester derby, where he was called into the side by manager Sven-Goran Eriksson because Stephen Ireland was ill.
‘He called me over and said, “Geovanni, this game… are you ready?”. That was the best news I’d had all day, knowing I was going to start.’ The day did, in fact, get better. Geovanni scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory.
Geovanni smashes home a winner for City in the Manchester derby, a year before his move to Hull
United were a familiar victim. In December 2005, his diving header for Benfica helped knock Sir Alex Ferguson’s side out of the Champions League in the group stages
He struck again against United in November 2008, in a 4-3 defeat for Hull at Old Trafford
United were a familiar victim. In December 2005, his diving header for Benfica helped knock Sir Alex Ferguson’s side out of the Champions League in the group stages, while he also scored in a 4-3 defeat for Hull at Old Trafford in 2008.
‘A player has to turn up in the big games,’ he says. ‘United were a machine back then: Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Anderson, Ronaldo, Rooney.’
Geovanni’s greatest regret, though, remains that he didn’t heed the advice of Barca boss Louis van Gaal, who wanted to turn the wannabe striker into a wing-back.
He reflects: ‘If I could go back in time, I’d listen to what Van Gaal said, because it would have been easier for me to fight for a place at wing-back than as a striker, where there were great players: Javier Saviola, Rivaldo, Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars.’
Luiz Felipe Scolari, his coach at Cruzeiro, gave him his only senior Brazil cap, against Mexico at the 2001 Copa America. ‘It was a dream for me: to leave a town of 4,000 people (Acaiaca) and one day represent Brazil,’ he says. ‘He (Scolari) was a father to me.’
These days Geovanni is a volunteer pastor in Belo Horizonte and runs a players’ agency with his father-in-law and an old youth-team friend.
But Hull will always be in his heart. He has a picture of himself in a Hull shirt in his house and received a hero’s return after heading back to the city last year.
‘I love them (the fans). I have a very special affection for the Hull supporters,’ he says. ‘It was two years in which I gave everything. I went back there last year and was really well received, it was great: friends from my time there, the fans too.
Battling Blackburn’s Damien Duff in a pre-season friendly in his Barcelona days. He spent only two seasons with the Catalan club, having left Cruzeiro to move to Europe
‘I’m very grateful for everything they did for me. Hull and the fans will always be in my heart’
‘And I know I left my mark on the club’s history. Whenever people talk about Hull City, about Brazilians, they’ll remember Geovanni, the time I spent there, the feats we achieved together.
‘And I believe I gave those fans a lot of joy, in games that seemed impossible. God blessed me and I was able to score goals and bring joy to that city. I’m very grateful for everything they did for me. Hull and the fans will always be in my heart.
‘My two years at Hull were perhaps the two most special years for me. The sweetest spell of my career.’
