Sunshine Fontes

Sunshine Anuhea Fontes (born February 25, 2001) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward for WE League club Urawa Red Diamonds. She played college soccer for the UCLA Bruins, winning the 2022 national championship. She represented the United States at the under-15 and under-17 levels, setting a program record with 24 goals for the under-17 team.

Early life

Fontes was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Aloha and Randy Fontes, and has six siblings. She began playing soccer at age four. She played club soccer for Hawaii Rush and the Honolulu Bulls. She was named the Honolulu Star-Advertiser State Player of the Year and the Hawaii Gatorade Player of the Year for 2016.

Fontes was named all-state every year in high school, including three first-team selections, and scored 81 career goals. She was again named the Honolulu Star-Advertiser State Player of the Year and the Hawaii Gatorade Player of the Year after her senior year in 2019, though she missed the state tournament after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the conference semifinals. She originally committed to play college soccer for the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine before switching to the higher-profile UCLA Bruins.

College career

Fontes redshirted her freshman season with the UCLA Bruins because of her ACL injury. She played in all 17 games and scored 5 goals as a redshirt freshman in 2020 (the season was held in the spring of 2021), earning Pac-12 Conference all-freshman honors. She played in all 20 games but scored 0 goals as a redshirt sophomore in 2021.

Fontes scored 5 goals in 9 games and was named third-team All-Pac-12 in her senior year in 2023, She returned to action for a sixth and final year in 2024, scoring 1 goal in 14 appearances. She made her professional debut as a stoppage-time substitute in a 2–0 victory over AC Nagano on October 5. On November 16, she scored her first professional goal in the 3rd minute of the 4–1 win over Sfida Setagaya in the Empress's Cup second round.

International career

Fontes helped the United States under-15 team win the 2016 CONCACAF Girls' U-15 Championship, scoring five goals with four assists in seven games. She had scored four goals against both Venezuela and Argentina earlier in the year, helping make her the all-time top scorer for the United States under-17 team with 22 goals going into the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. She scored twice in the team's opening match against Cameroon, their only win at the tournament. At the end of 2018, she was one of five nominees for U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year alongside her U-17 teammates Maya Doms and Sophia Smith. Following her ACL injury, she was not called up to the youth national team for five years until she joined the under-23 squad for the friendly tournament against National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) teams in the 2023 preseason.

Honors and awards

UCLA Bruins NCAA Division I women's soccer tournament: 2022 Pac-12 Conference: 2020, 2021, 2023 Big Ten women's soccer tournament: 2024

United States U-15 CONCACAF Girls' U-15 Championship: 2016

United States U-17 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship: 2018

Individual Second-team All-Pac-12: 2022 Third-team All-Pac-12: 2023 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship Golden Boot: 2018