Alex Bunbury

Alex Bunbury

Personal information
Full name	Alexander Bunbury
Date of birth	June 18, 1967 (1967-06-18)
Place of birth	Plaisance, Guyana
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1987–1990	Hamilton Steelers	76	(28)
1990	Toronto Blizzard	?	(12)
1991	Montreal Supra	?	(7)
1992–1993	West Ham	4	(0)
1993–1999	Marítimo	165	(59)
1999–2000	Kansas City Wizards	24	(4)
National team
1986–1997	Canada	66	(16)
Teams managed
2000–	Bangu FC
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Alexander "Alex" Bunbury (born June 18, 1967) is a former Canadian professional footballer, who played as a striker.

Club career

Bunbury started playing professionally with the Hamilton Steelers in Canada, also having one-year spells in the Canadian Soccer League with the Toronto Blizzard and Montreal Supra.

In 1993, after an unassuming season for West Ham United (only six appearances overall), he moved to Portugal's C.S. Marítimo, going on to become the Madeira club's all-time leading goalscorer in the first division, with 59 goals in 165 games. In his second season, he won the Foreign Player of the Year award. His final season proved to be the most prolific, when he scored 15 league goals.

In early 1999, after requesting a move to play closer to his hometown of Montreal, Bunbury returned to North America, and retired after two seasons with the Kansas City Wizards of the Major League Soccer. Subsequently, he took up coaching, first with Bangu FC, then at the Minnesota Thunder Academy (MTA).

Bunbury was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in April 2006.

International career

Bunbury played in all three of Canada's games at the 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship in the Soviet Union. He made his senior debut in an August 1986 Merlion Cup match against Singapore, and went on to earn 66 caps, scoring 16 goals.

Bunbury ranked third in the all-time scorer's list, and fifth in caps (June 17, 2008). He represented Canada in 28 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and played at the inaugural 1989 FIFA Futsal World Championship.

Bunbury's final international was a November 1997 World Cup qualification match against Costa Rica, a game after which Paul Dolan, Geoff Aunger, Frank Yallop and Colin Miller also said farewell to the national team.

International goals

Scores and results list Canada's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	30 August 1986	Singapore, Singapore	Indonesia		4–0	Merlion Cup
2	6 September 1986	Singapore, Singapore	Singapore	1–0	1–0	Merlion Cup
3	30 September 1987	Estadio Cuscatlán, San Salvador, El Salvador	El Salvador		1–2	Friendly
4	15 November 1992	Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, Canada	Bermuda	1–0	4–2	1994 World Cup qualification
5	15 November 1992	Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, Canada	Bermuda	2–0	4–2	1994 World Cup qualification
6	15 November 1992	Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, Canada	Bermuda	3–0	4–2	1994 World Cup qualification
7	4 April 1993	Estadio Nacional, Tegucigalpa, Honduras	Honduras	2–1	2–2	1994 World Cup qualification
8	11 April 1993	Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, Canada	El Salvador	1–0	2–0	1994 World Cup qualification
9	9 May 1993	Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Canada	Mexico	1–0	1–2	1994 World Cup qualification
10	15 July 1993	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Martinique	2–0	2–2	1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup
11	26 January 1995	Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Canada	Portugal	1–1	1–1	SkyDome Cup
12	10 October 1996	Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Canada	Cuba	1–0	2–0	1998 World Cup qualification
13	3 November 1996	Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, Canada	El Salvador	1–0	1–0	1998 World Cup qualification
14	15 December 1996	Estadio Cuscatlán, San Salvador, El Salvador	El Salvador	2–0	2–0	1998 World Cup qualification
15	14 September 1997	Estadio Cuscatlán, San Salvador, El Salvador	El Salvador	1–1	1–4	1998 World Cup qualification
16	12 October 1997	Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Canada	Mexico	1–1	2–2	1998 World Cup qualification

Honours

Club

• Marítimo:
  • Portuguese Cup: Runners-up 1994–95

• Kansas City Wizards:
  • MLS Cup: 2000
  • MLS Supporters' Shield: 2000

Individual

• Canadian International Player of the Year: 1993, 1995
• Portuguese League Foreign Player of the Year: 1994–95

Personal life

Bunbury was born in Plaisance, Guyana. He is the father of Teal Bunbury, a 2010 Hermann Award winner for soccer and player for MLS side Sporting Kansas City. Notably, Teal did not follow his father into the senior Canadian team, playing with Canada's U-17 and U-20 sides before accepting caps with the United States men's setup.^{[citation needed]}

After his retirement, Bunbury made Prior Lake, Minnesota his home, where he has been a youth soccer coach and trainer. With wife Kristi, he has one daughter, Kylie (an actress who appeared in Prom), and two sons: Logan and Teal. Alex and his sons are all dual nationals. Alex is Guyana-Canadian, Teal Canadian-American, Logan Portuguese-American.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Soccer Hall of Fame inductee page
• Profile at Zerozero
• Stats at ForaDeJogo (Portuguese)
• The Wonderful World of West Ham United statistics
• Alex Bunbury at National-Football-Teams.com