He played for Russia at the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup in his homeland, Brazil, and ended the tournament as top scorer with 18 goals, the first on 2 October in a 10–5 win over Cuba. Nine of them came in a 31–2 group win over the Solomon Islands, the most by a player in the World Cup and biggest win by a team. He then scored the sixth in a 9–1 win over Japan. In the second match of the second group phase, he scored a hat-trick as Russia beat Paraguay 5–4. Pula scored a goal against Brazil but lost 4–2.