Guillermo Franco joined West Ham back in 2009 by then manager Gianfranco Zola for an undisclosed fee, making him the first Mexican to ever play for the club. Although he only stayed for the year, he had a fairly successful season, making 23 appearances and scoring 5 goals. Franco made his debut in October in a 2-1 defeat to Stoke City. He scored his first goal for the team later that month to put them 1-0 up against Sunderland, a game which would finish 2-2. He made a very decent strike partner for Carlton Cole, due to the only other options being injury-ridden Benni McCarthy, Mido (who scored no goals for West Ham at all in his short loan spell), Ilan (who also lacked goals) and the inexperienced Zavon Hines. His most important moment for the club was when he assisted the goal scored by Scott Parker that won us the game against Wigan 3-2 at the end of the season, which meant we were saved from relegation. Despite Franco publicly stating that he wanted to stay at the club, he was released at the end of the year as his one-year contract expired.
He was then signed as a free agent by Argentinian club Velez Sarsfield on another one-year deal. He had a fairly successful year there, scoring 5 goals in 18 appearances, although he did pick up an injury half way through the year keeping him out until the last five games of the season. In those last few matches, he made one starting appearance and scored one goal from a penalty to help his team win the Argentinian league.
In January 2012, he signed for Pachuca of the Mexican Primera Division, but failed to score after making just 12 appearances. He now plays for Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire. He signed for them in September of this year and has since made three appearances.
Franco made his debut for the Mexican national side in 2005. He played at the 2006 World Cup and also in all of four games of the 2010 World Cup. He has 25 caps in total, as well as 7 international goals. He retired from international football in September 2010. Throughout his career, the 35-year-old has scored almost 125 goals in just over 300 appearances for club and country.
Here is a clip of a goal he scored against Wolves for West Ham in 2010. Apologies for the reverse camera and the foreign commentary.
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