Pavón began his career at the age of 18 in his native Honduras with Real España on 30 May 1992 against Platense in the 1992 Honduran Cup, the final score was 1-1. While with Real España, Pavón won four Honduran league championships, as well as leading the league in scoring.

On 19 June 2007, he signed a deal to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. [1] He scored twice in the away match against New York Red Bulls on 18 August 2007, both coming from David Beckham assists. The match attracted 66,000 fans, the highest attendance ever recorded for a Bulls game. Pavón was waived at the end of the season.

Despite other offers from MLS teams, he went back to Real Club España in Honduras for 2008. After being released, he signed on with the struggling Club Necaxa of the Primera División de México. He made his debut for Necaxa on 1 March 2009 after only one training session with the club. He started the match and assisted both goals in their 2–2 draw with Club Santos Laguna.

On 19 October 2009, the IFFHS had a vote for the 2009 “world’s most popular football player award”. The candidates consisted of 115 currently active players from 68 countries in all six football continents. Votes were cast at the IFFHS website until 2 January 2010 with Carlos Pavón being the winner.

He is the son of Costa Rican Allard Plummer, who played for Marathón in the 1970s and Blanca Nieves Pavón Macedo. He is married to Emy Diana James de Pavón and they have two sons, Carlos and André. His son Carlos Alberto Plummer James was enlisted by Real España in 2011.