Teal Bunbury

College and amateur

Bunbury's first club was Apple Valley Juventus, followed by college soccer at the University of Akron. He made a total of 35 starts and appeared in 48 games with the Zips during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. In his first season, he made 23 appearances, starting ten games and scoring six goals, a total second only to future SuperDraft pick Steve Zakuani, who led the NCAA in scoring with 20. After Steve Zakuani was selected first overall in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft, Bunbury began to shine for Akron. As a sophomore, he started all 25 games for the Zips, including the 2009 Division I Men's College Cup final. Bunbury led the team and the nation in goals, scoring 17 during the year, led the team in shots (103) and tied with fellow forward, Darlington Nagbe, in game-winning goals (5). Bunbury earned many accolades during the 2009 season, including the Mid-American Conference's Player of the Week award three times and same award by College Soccer News, once. He was also named to Top Drawer Soccer's national Team of the Week during the season. At the end of the season he was named as the winner of the 2009 Hermann Trophy Award, honoring the best player in college soccer. During his college years Bunbury also played with the Rochester Thunder in the USL Premier Development League and the Chicago Fire Premier in the USL Super-20 League.

Professional

After two years with the Zips, Bunbury decided to forgo the remainder of his collegiate career and…

Bunbury played for the Canadian national U-17 and U-20 teams. Though he had said he would play for Canada and it would feel "wrong" to play for the US, he was called up to the full US team as part of the squad to face South Africa. Bunbury earned his first cap for the United States on November 17, 2010, coming on as a substitute at halftime in the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup. He scored his first international goal against Chile from a penalty kick, in an exhibition match in Los Angeles.

Bunbury was born in Hamilton, Ontario to Kristi Novak, an American of Polish and Swedish descent, and Alex Bunbury, a Guyanese-born, Canadian professional soccer player who is the twelfth most capped player for the Canadian men's soccer team. He has an older sister, actress Kylie Bunbury, and two younger brothers, Logan and Mataeo, the latter of whom is also a professional soccer player. At the age of two, he left Canada to travel with his family, at first to England, where his father played briefly, and then to Portugal. When he was 10 years old, he moved to the United States with his family and has lived there since. He grew up in Prior Lake, Minnesota and attended Shattuck-St. Mary's High School.

Bunbury is the son of Alex Bunbury, a former striker who is the joint eighth-highest scorer all-time for the Canadian men's soccer team. He also finished his career as one of C.S. Marítimo's all-time top goal scorers. Bunbury is the first son of a former MLS player to be drafted into the league. In 2015, he married Kaity Maurer, with whom he has two daughters.