Israel Castro Franco (born April 11, 1975) is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. Born in Brazil, he represented the El Salvador national team.

Club career

Castro spent the majority of his career in his adopted homeland El Salvador, mostly twice at Luis Ángel Firpo. He also played in his native Brazil and for a short period of time with the Portuguese lower league outfit Imortal de Albufeira.

International career

Castro became a Salvadoran citizen in 1996. He made his debut for the El Salvador national team in an August 1997

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

match against

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and has earned a total of 13 caps, scoring 3 goals. He thus participated in the 1998 FIFA World Cup campaign, playing four matches in the process, under the popular Serbian coach Milovan Đorić and represented his country at the

1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the fourth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament was once again held in the United States, in Los Angeles, Miami, and O ...

.CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 1998 - Full Details
- RSSSF His final international was a November 1998 friendly match against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list El Salvador's goal tally first.''

Honours

Atlético Paranaense *

Campeonato Paranaense Campeonato Paranaense, which has been contested since 1915, is the top-flight football league of the state of Paraná, Brazil. Format The format has changed in 2014. 12 teams are together in a single group. They play against each other once, ...

: 2000 Luis Ángel Firpo *

Salvadoran Primera División Salvadorans (Spanish: ''Salvadoreños''), also known as Salvadorians (alternate spelling: Salvadoreans), are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvad ...

: 1997-98

References

External links

* 1975 births Living people Salvadoran people of Brazilian descent Brazilian emigrants to El Salvador Naturalized citizens of El Salvador Salvadoran footballers Brazilian footballers Footballers from Curitiba Association football forwards El Salvador international footballers 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo footballers Clube Atlético Juventus players Club Athletico Paranaense players Imortal D.C. players Associação Atlética Portuguesa (RJ) players C.D. Chalatenango footballers San Salvador F.C. footballers Once Municipal footballers Salvadoran expatriate footballers Salvadoran expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal {{ElSalvador-footy-bio-stub