From blackmail to failure in Benfica. What's made of Kikin Fonseca?

José Francisco Fonseca Guzmán you may not say anything to portuguese football fans, but if we bring the name on the table Kikin Fonseca the memory refreshes and many will remember this old mexican advance.

Player with credits signed in Mexico, Fonseca was born in the city of Léon and began his training at La Piedad. In the turn to the 21st century, in 1998, the forerunner went to the Union of Likers, before moving to the Venados de Yucatán. From early on, the Mexican showed his credentials: a high-quality heading power and a born finisher and fashioned for big decisions.

He ended up back at La Piedad and that's when it caught the attention of one of the great football clubs in Mexico, having made the jump to Pumas in 2002 by indication of Hugo Sánchez. He quickly became an idol of the masses. It was Pumas' sweater that, in two and a half seasons, won two of his major career titles.

After impressive performances at the 2003 Apertura and Clausura tournament, he consolidated his place in the Pumas title team in the 2004 Clausura, during which he helped bring the Pumas to the title. After helping the Pumas win a second title at the time of Apertura 2004, having scored 25 goals in 81 games by the Mexico City based team, Fonseca was transferred to the Blue Cross in early 2005. It was at this time that he also began to be called to the Mexico national team.

Kikin Fonseca and Ricardo Carvalho in a ball match© Getty Images  

At the Blue Cross, the spearhead was also an important player, playing 51 games and scoring 26 goals. Fonseca went to all the gas in career growth and moved to Benfica in the summer of 2006, for a sum of around EUR 3.5 million, having scored Portugal in one of the four games that he played in the 2006 World Cup in Germany and a year after he made his sights in the Confederations Cup, he won before Japan and Germany.

Travel to Europe did not go as you wished

However, things did not go well in Portugal, at a time when he had as main competitors Nuno Gomes and Fabrizio Miccoli. It took 12 games to score the first eagle goal to the chest and ended up leaving eight months later with only 13 games and 3 goals scored. Later, Fonseca even revealed that he was the target of an alleged blackmail, in which he was asked about 400,000 euros to continue in Lisboa.

Closed passage through Europe, Kikin Fonseca returned to the country and entered a contract with Tigers. Still, never regained the attributes and quality that opened Europe's doors. In the years that followed, and despite continuing to be one of the athletes who was called to the selection, the advanced made over 200 games between Tigres and Atlante, also from Mexico, and 28 games in the space of about seven years.

Far from Mexico's spotlight, Kikin would finish his career in 2014 at Santos de Guápilles, Costa Rica, something forgotten and far from the importance it had of mexican football.

What now, Kikin Fonseca?

Even though he did not assume roles directly linked to football, Kikin Fonseca, who on social media indicates being a coach – which suggests that he at least took the same course –, is currently a sports commentator on the Mexican channel TUDN.

With regard to the passage through the Mexico national team, Kikin Fonseca resigned from the tricolor formation with 43 games and 21 goals. He attended the 2006 World Cup in 2007 and also at the Confederations Cup.

Every week Sports to the Minute presents you with a new edition of the heading ‘What is made of...?’, which aims to remember the path of some personalities of the football world who ended up falling into oblivion.