Black History Month Players: Alex Bunbury

 As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link,  but this post and today's thread on X is on Alex Bunbury. If you don’t remember Alex Bunbury, that’s understandable as he only played 6 games for West Ham in the 1992/93 season. But this often forgotten hammer has a great story that I’m going to share today.

Born in Guyana in 1967, Bunbury was the youngest of 13 children. Yes, you read that right, 13! Bunbury was not interested in football until he was 12, preferring cricket, with his childhood hero being West Indies Captain, Clive Lloyd. Moving to Montreal at the age of 9, Bunbury took up Ice Hockey at first, before ending up playing football as his older brother had begun playing & Bunbury fancied having a go too. It was a match made in heaven & Bunbury was fast-tracked through multiple teams in his youth.

By 18, Bunbury was already representing the Canadian national youth teams, being of the squad that would represent the country at the Under 20 World Cup in 1985. But as football in Canada was not an organised sport at the time, Bunbury was mostly just an amateur playing out of a love for the game. 

But by 1987, Canadian football had its first professional league in the form of the Canadian soccer league. Bunbury was signed his professional contract for the inaugural season of the league by Hamilton Steelers, where he would spend 3 years, scoring 27 goals in 71 games. He would then move to Toronto Blizzard in 1990 where he would spend one season before another single season at Montreal Supra. But in 1992, Bunbury would find himself out of work when the Canadian soccer league collapsed, due to the fact that there were not enough clubs to compete in the league.

Wanting to continue his career, Bunbury would go on trial at various European clubs in order to earn a contract. He would have trials with Celtic in Scotland, Le Havre in France & Aston Villa before signing for West Ham in December 1992. Despite only playing 6 games in a 6-month stay with West Ham, Bunbury credits the club with raising his game to a whole new level that he would have never experienced had he stayed in Canada. Additionally, it should also be mentioned that Bunbury was a double history maker for West Ham, becoming the first Canadian and the first black North American player to represent the club. He would be followed by Craig Forrest & Shaka Hislop in these respects in the late 1990s. But a lack of opportunities in East London saw Bunbury move to Maritimo in Portugal.

At Maritimo, Bunbury became a club legend, playing the best football of his career where he was voted the club’s best player three seasons in a row between 1996-1998. He would also help the club reach their first-ever cup final in 1995 where they lost in the final of the Taca de Portugal, Portugal’s equivalent of the FA Cup. Bunbury would add to this runners-up medal with many personal accolades during this spell at Maritimo, which included winning the Foreign Player of the Year award in 1994 and being named Canadian Footballer of the year in 1993 and 1995. Finally, Bunbury is also Maritimo’s all-time highest goalscorer with 59 goals & 10th on their all-time highest appearance makers with 165 games to his name.

Leaving Maritimo in 1999 as a legend to move back to North America, Bunbury would spend the final 18 months of his career playing for Sporting Kansas City.  In addition to his respectable club career, Bunbury was a regular member of Canada’s national team for well over a decade. Making his debut in 1986, Bunbury would earn 66 caps for his adopted nation, scoring 15 goals in an 11-year international career. Bunbury would retire after winning the MLS in 2000 with Sporting Kansas City to take up a coaching career. 

Since retiring from playing, Bunbury has had a healthy career in youth football coaching Bangu FC, a developmental side in Minnesota for 8 years from 2000 until 2008 where he left to take over a similar role with the Minnesota Thunder academy for 4 years. Whilst Bunbury’s work with youth academies in Minnesota’s professional sides was a boon to his coaching experience, Bunbury runs his own football academies in both Minnesota & on the Portuguese island of Madeira, where he played for Maritimo. Bunbury personally believes that youth development is integral to football, but can also help shape lives for the better, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, where Bunbury aims to take most of his academy’s intake and reinvest it as he personally funds the academies. 

Talking in an article published in 2021, Bunbury states whilst his holistic approach to his football academy helps players develop footballing skills, but also aims to develop life skills such as social skills, how to take care of themselves, be disciplined & make commitments. Bunbury’s belief in youth development has no doubt had an effect on his son Teal, who currently plays for Nashville in the MLS & who has represented the US national team in 4 caps between 2012-2013.

Finally, for his services to football, Bunbury was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2006, with a fellow honour of being named in Canadian football’s all-time greatest side in 2012. Whilst Bunbury is somewhat forgotten at West Ham, his impact on the Canadian & wider game away from West Ham deserves applause from us as a black trailblazer for North American soccer & for the great work he is doing to try & nurture the future generations of footballers too.

Once again, thanks for reading today’s thread. 

If you would like to read the interview I mentioned in this post, here it is: https://www.hub-soccer.com/2021/03/25/alex-bunbury-i-would-love-to-be-part-of-a-big-club-in-portugal/

Additionally, extra info was taken from Brian Belton’s book ‘The Black Hammers’, which has been invaluable to me in writing these posts.