Javier Hernandez has promised to repay the faith shown in him by West Ham manager Slaven Bilic following his £16million move from Bayer Leverkusen.
The 29-year-old former Manchester United star has signed a three-year deal and will join up with the rest of the squad in Germany this week.
Bilic’s perseverance has paid off but two years ago, when the player they call ‘Chicharito’ left Manchester United, bids of £9m and then £12m were not enough to complete a deal.
This summer both co-chairman David Sullivan and Bilic have again worked hard to persuade Hernandez to join and the Mexico striker acknowledged their efforts.
"Slaven Bilic was a massive influence on me signing," he said. "Since I joined Bayer Leverkusen he has wanted me, he spoke with me, he tried to do everything he could to bring me here but it was impossible for a lot of reasons.
"Now I am here though, I am going to be his player and I want to give him back that confidence and try to do my best to make him happy. I am grateful for all the support I have received in the last few days from the manager and from the directors of this club."
Hernandez has scored consistently throughout his career, netting 59 goals in just over four seasons at Manchester United, nine in 33 on loan at Real Madrid and 39 in 76 matches for Leverkusen. He is Mexico’s top scorer with 48 goals.
He is the fourth signing of the summer following the arrivals of Pablo Zabaleta, Joe Hart and Marko Arnautovic.
Hernandez told the West Ham website: "I will be in best league in the world, I am going to have this challenge, which will push me as a player. You can see in this window they have spent very well with good players to achieve a lot this season.
"I want to show my best. It’s about goals to make all the fans, all my team-mates and all the staff very happy that I am here. My main goal is to make them happy and make them to not want me to leave this club."
Hernandez will return to Old Trafford with West Ham on the opening weekend of the new season.
He said: "Of course I will be very happy to go back there and play, and try to win! Hopefully I can do as well in that stadium for West Ham as I did when I played for United."
