Bunbury eager to give back to Guyana

– progress made on state-of-the-art facility

By Timothy Jaikarran

Alexander “Alex” Bunbury (born June 18, 1967 in Plaisance, Guyana) is a Canadian retired soccer player, who played as a striker.
He played mainly for Marítimo in Portugal during a 13-year professional career, and for the Canadian national team for 11 years.
Bunbury played in all three of Canada’s games at the 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship in the Soviet Union. He made his debut with the senior side in an August 1986 Merlion Cup match against Singapore, and went on to earn 65 caps and score 16 goals during 11 years.
Bunbury ranked fourth in the all-time scorer’s list in June 2008, and eighth in appearances, representing the nation in 30 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.
Speaking with Guyana Times Sport when asked about his current projects, Bunbury said, “I am currently working on a project called Team ABSAA – Alex Bunbury Sports & Academics Academy, we have thus far presented architectural renderings and a bold proposal to the Government of Guyana to build and manage a multimillion US-dollar eco-friendly, state-of-the-art sports, academics and resort facility in Guyana – The ABSAA-GUYANA Project.
The US$100 million multipurpose facility will be built on the Ituni road, about 15 minutes’ drive from Linden. It will be the flagship for the other Regions with satellites mirroring it. “It will be a multipurpose facility for all sporting disciplines, not just football. It is for cricket, basketball, cycling, swimming, hockey, track and field and the list goes on. We want to touch the lives of every young boy and girl to realise their dream. We signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Guyana three years ago; we had asked for seed money of US$30 million, but at that time it was impossible for the Government to allocate such funds; however, they did give us 200 acres of land. Today, we have taken a look at our plans and in 2019 we will now require US$3 million seed money.”
According to Bunbury, himself and other Guyanese investors came together because they believe that this facility can rocket Guyana into the 21st Century and it will benefit Guyanese citizens as it will also create thousands of well-paying jobs.
Bunbury went on to state that the US$3 million will be used as life insurance, so if anything goes wrong the Government would be repaid by the insurance. The investors also plan to repay the money within a 24-month period and no taxpayers’ money will be used, as this project is fully funded and ready to go; once approved, it can be completed in 18-22 months. Bunbury r went on to state that the state-of-the-art facility will consist of a dormitory which will be able to keep the teams and facilitate their every need, more than one field as they will be catering for multiple sport disciplines, a training centre and learning facilities. He also said, “This facility is bound to increase tourism as it will send it through the roof. Once this facility is done, I plan to invite teams from Europe to train; all in all, this is basically a no-risk investment, but all we need to start is the U $3 million.”
Last year the ABSAA hosted its second female breast cancer futsal tournament and first prostate cancer football event for men in September. The ABSAA will continue to have a busier 2019.