This great land of many waters has produced many international athletes who, although making their Guyanese background known in foreign lands, are hardly heard of, if not unknown here.
The dedicated Guyanese writer and researcher Ras Michael found two very young football players with a rich Guyanese background, and who are aggressive athletes internationally: Teal Bunbury and Sean Cameron.
Cameron in his Miami FC shirt
Sean Cameron was born on January 26, 1985 in Brooklyn, New York to Guyanese parents. He grew up in New Jersey and attended North Brunswick High School, where he became a two-time All State player, in 2003 and 2004. At Connecticut, he played 15 football (or soccer) games as a freshman, but only seven as a sophomore.
Frustrated with the poor playing time, he transferred to Rutgers in 2005, and finished his career there in 2006. Sean holds both American and Guyanese citizenship through his father. He is also a player for the Guyanese national team.
On February 8, 2007 Sean, a midfielder, signed with Miami FC USL Division 1 and played two productive seasons with the team before being traded to the Atlanta Silverbacks for Ansu Toure on August 16, 2008.
“We enjoyed Ansu Toure and are sorry to see him go, but we are excited about the acquisition of Sean Cameron. We are looking forward to him wearing a Silverback jersey,” Atlanta head coach Jason Smith had said.
In 2009, the young star joined the Pittsburgh River Hounds and played ten games with that club before rejoining Miami FC in 2010.
Teal Bunbury
Born on February 27, 1990, Teal Bunbury is a Canadian-born American soccer player, who plays for the Kansas City major leagues. His uncle, Sam, is the present coach of the Guyana football team in Brooklyn.
His father, Alexander ‘Alex’ Bunbury, was born on June 18, 1967 in Plaisance, and is a former Canadian professional football player.
While playing club football for Sports Martimo of the Portugese Liga Sigra, dad scored 59 goals in 169 appearances. The elder Bunbury was also a mainstay of the Canadian National Team from 1986 to 1997, and is currently enshrined in Canada’s Soccer Hall of Fame.
This international Guyanese soccer star played for Kansas City Wizards, the same team that drafted Teal in the 2009 drafts, thus making them the first ever father/son combo to play Major League Soccer.
Teal started playing football young, due to his father; travelling with him as he played in England and in Portugal. Teal played college soccer while attending the University of Akron.
Still in his second year, he started 25 games for the Zips, among them the 2009 Division One Men’s College Cup Final.
He scored a total of 17 goals for 2009, making him the lead scorer in goals in the national team. He was also leading in shots, and tied with football player Darlington Nagbe in winning goals. He was awarded the Mid- American Conference’s Player of the Week three times, the Top Drawer Soccer’s National Team of the Week, and the Hermann Trophy Award in 2009. Teal also played for the Rochester Thunder in the USL Premier Development League and the Chicago Fire Premier.
The aggressive football player signed with Generation Adidas after two years playing for the Zips, and made his professional debut on March 27, 2010 in the game against D. C. United. He scored his first goal on April 13, 2010 against the Colorado Rapids in the US Open Cup. He also has played for Canadian national teams, among them the U-17 and U- 20 teams.
However, he joined the full USA team on November 11, 2010 to face off against South Africa. He earned his first cap with the US team on November 17, coming in as a sub at half-time during the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup.
In an interview with Ras Michael, Teal’s father said proudly, “It’s pretty much full circle, isn’t it? I’m a man of faith, so I guess someone up there was making it happen for us. For a father to sit there and watch his son that he loves unconditionally join the team he once played for, words cannot describe how I felt.” When comparing his playing styles with his son’s, the senior Bunbury stated, “I was a player who played with my back to the goal. He can do that, too. I would say he is a more natural goal scorer than I was, he has the ability to create his own opportunities.” “It’s an amazing feeling, being able to say that my dad played for the Kansas City Wizards and now I’m going to as well. I feel honoured and privileged to carry on the Bunbury name in Major League Soccer,” said Teal gratefully.
Ras Michael hopes Afro-Guyanese youths would use these two renowned athletes as examples to explore talents and skills they possess, and proudly represent their Guyanese roots. (Taken from Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
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