Guillermo "Guille" Luis Franco Farquarson (born 3 November 1976) 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, rugb ...

who played as a striker. Born in Argentina, he represented the Mexico national team.

Early life

Guillermo Franco was born in

Corrientes Corrientes (; Guaraní: Taragüí, literally: "Currents") is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from Buenos Aires and from Posadas, on National Route 12. It ha ...

, the capital city of the

Corrientes Province Corrientes (, ‘currents’ or ‘streams’; gn, Taragui), officially the Province of Corrientes ( es, Provincia de Corrientes; gn, Taragüí Tetãmini) is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by (fr ...

in Argentina.

Club career

San Lorenzo

Franco began his career with

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). T ...

side

San Lorenzo San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Lawrence of Rome, Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr, and may refer to: Places Argentina * San Lorenzo, Santa Fe * San Lorenzo Department, Chaco * Monte San Lorenzo, a mountain on t ...

, playing with the team from 1996 to 2002 mainly as a right winger.

Monterrey

He then joined Mexican

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is ancho ...

in the middle of 2002, and made his debut during the 2002 Apertura. Franco was very successful with the ''Rayados'', and led the league in scoring during the 2004 Apertura with 15 goals in 16 games, playing as a striker. He was part of the team that won the

Mexican Primera División The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in ...

championship in 2003 and achieved runner-up position twice in 2004 and 2005.

Villareal

Subsequently, Franco spent three years in Spain playing for Villarreal, but his spell was plagued with injuries. In his first season, Franco helped Villareal reach the semifinal of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

where they lost to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

. Franco also scored a goal that qualified Villarreal for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, in a 1–0 victory against

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blu ...

West Ham United

In September 2009, Franco signed for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

on a one-year contract, becoming the first Mexican to play for the Hammers. On 25 September, it was disclosed that due to West Ham's perilous financial situation following former chairman

Björgólfur Guðmundsson Björgólfur Guðmundsson (born 2 January 1941) is an Icelandic businessman and former chairman and owner of West Ham United. Björgólfur was Iceland's second wealthiest businessman worth more than a billion dollars — his son, Björgólfur ...

's financial collapse, West Ham's CEO Scott Duxbury, and their Sporting and Football Technical Director

Gianluca Nani Gianluca Nani (born 1 October 1962) is an Italian sporting and football technical director. Football career Nani organised football tournaments in Spain before working as Brescia Calcio's sporting director commencing in 1999. During this time he w ...

, had part financed the deal from their own salaries. Franco made his debut for West Ham on 17 October 2009 in a 2–1 away defeat to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. He scored his first goal for the team on 31 October 2009 to put them 1–0 up against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

away from home, in a game that finished 2–2. Franco became the third Mexican player to score in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

Jared Borgetti Jared Francisco Borgetti Echavarría (; born 14 August 1973) is a Mexican former professional footballer who currently works as a commentator for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mexico. As a player, Borgetti was known as a prolific goal scorer at both ...

and Carlos Vela being the first and second respectively. On 24 April 2010, Franco assisted Scott Parker, who scored for the winner in a 3–2 victory against

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

; a win which would see them safe from relegation. In May it was announced that West Ham would release Franco.

Vélez Sársfield

The striker then spent one semester as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who i ...

, until he joined Vélez Sársfield back in Argentina in January 2011. He signed a one-year deal, and made his debut coming on as a second-half substitute for Santiago Silva in a 2–2 draw at Independiente in the first fixture of the 2011 Clausura. Subsequently, he played the starting minutes of the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

debut against Caracas FC, suffering a shoulder injury that left him out for the remainder of the season. Having played less than 30 minutes, he offered the club to terminate his contract, or suspend his salary until he recovered, though Vélez rejected it. He returned for the

2011 Copa Libertadores The 2011 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2011 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, South America's premier international club football tournamen ...

quarter-finals, entering the field and scoring one goal from a penalty in a 4–2 victory over Libertad. He also played the last 5 games of the 2011 Clausura (one as a starter), helping his team win the Argentine league title.

Pachuca

On 21 January 2012, he joined

Pachuca Pachuca (; ote, Nju̱nthe), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality of wh ...

of the

. The next season, the Chicago Fire signed him.

Chicago Fire

Franco signed with Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire on 14 September 2012. On 21 January 2013 the club announced Franco's contract option was not picked up for the new season. On 29 January 2013, Franco announced his retirement from football.

International career

In 2004, Franco became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

Mexican citizen after settling in Mexico in 2002; and made senior national team debut in 2005. Franco played at the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

and was a part of the

2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the tenth edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, and the twentieth soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was played from July 3 to 26, 2009 in the United State ...

squad. During the 2010 World Cup qualification, he contributed two goals in six games. He played in all four matches for Mexico at the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. In September 2010, Franco announced his retirement from international football.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Mexico's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Franco goal''.

Honours

San Lorenzo *

: 2001 Clausura * Copa Mercosur:

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

Monterrey *

: 2003 Clausura Vélez Sársfield *

: 2011 Clausura Mexico *

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

Individual *

Golden Ball: Clausura 2003 *

Top scorer: 2004 Apertura

References

External links

*
FootballDatabase.com Profile
* * *
Argentine Primera statistics
at Fútbol XXI {{DEFAULTSORT:Franco, Guillermo 1976 births Living people People from Corrientes Mexican footballers Mexico international footballers Argentine footballers Naturalized citizens of Mexico Argentine emigrants to Mexico Association football forwards Mexican expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Mexican expatriate sportspeople in England Argentine Primera División players San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers Chicago Fire FC players Liga MX players C.F. Monterrey players C.F. Pachuca players La Liga players Villarreal CF players Premier League players Major League Soccer players West Ham United F.C. players Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate soccer players in the United States 2006 FIFA World Cup players 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2010 FIFA World Cup players CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players Mexican Christians Sportspeople from Corrientes Province