Last Updated on September 22, 2026 by Laurinda Jocias
Samuel “Sam” Junqua is an American professional soccer player who has built a long career in Major League Soccer. Born on November 9, 1996, in Saratoga, California, the versatile defender played college soccer at the University of California, Berkeley before beginning his professional career with Houston Dynamo. After later representing FC Dallas, he joined Real Salt Lake, where he has continued his MLS career.
Family has been an important part of Junqua’s story from childhood. He is one of three sons born to Jean-Claude Junqua and Yuriko Junqua, and his brothers are Jonathan Junqua and Fabien Junqua. All three boys grew up playing soccer. In his adult life, Sam built a long-term relationship with Emma Besier, who became his fiancée and is now publicly known as Emma Junqua, his wife. The couple are particularly well known for their work fostering and helping homeless animals.
Who Is Samuel Junqua’s Wife?
Samuel Junqua is married to Emma Junqua, formerly known publicly as Emma Besier. Their relationship has been documented for several years through MLS clubs and animal-welfare organizations.
Emma was already part of Sam’s life during his years with Houston Dynamo. In 2021, Houston Dynamo described Emma as Junqua’s girlfriend while profiling the couple’s work fostering vulnerable kittens in the Houston area.
The relationship continued through Sam’s subsequent move to FC Dallas. Dallas Pets Alive referred to Emma as his longtime girlfriend in 2023, while FC Dallas later confirmed that Sam became engaged to Emma during the 2024 offseason.
By September 2025, Best Friends Animal Society was describing Emma as Sam’s fiancée. The couple had moved together to Utah after Junqua joined Real Salt Lake and continued their animal fostering work there.
Their relationship has since progressed to marriage. As of now, Emma publicly uses the name Emma Junqua and describes Sam as her husband on her professional website. An exact wedding date has not been widely documented by reliable public sources.
Who Is Emma Junqua?
Emma Junqua has a professional career separate from her husband’s soccer career. She works in technology as a machine learning engineer and has increasingly focused her expertise on animal welfare.
Emma studied Data Science at the University of California, Berkeley and later earned a graduate degree in Computational Science and Engineering from Harvard. Her educational background means she and Sam share a connection to UC Berkeley, where Sam played college soccer.
Emma has explained that her interest in using technology for animal welfare developed partly through the couple’s experiences fostering kittens. She became interested in how data and machine learning could potentially help animal shelters make better decisions and improve outcomes for vulnerable animals.
Samuel Junqua and Emma’s Animal Rescue Work
Animal welfare has become one of the most distinctive parts of Sam and Emma’s life together. Their fostering journey began while they were living in Houston during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Houston-area shelters urgently needed people willing to care for young kittens. Sam and Emma had initially planned to begin fostering later, but they were contacted about kittens that immediately needed somewhere to stay. The couple agreed to help, beginning a project that continued for years.
Junqua told Houston Dynamo that there were periods when they were caring for as many as 12 foster cats at the same time. Some required particularly intensive attention, including very young kittens that needed frequent feeding.
Sam also volunteered with animal organizations, including participating in dog-walking programs, while Emma became increasingly involved in the broader animal-welfare field.
By 2025, Best Friends Animal Society reported that Sam and Emma had fostered more than 20 cats. They even began hosting informal “kitten showers,” inviting friends and some of Sam’s teammates to spend time socializing foster kittens and potentially helping the animals find permanent homes.
The couple’s shared interest in animals therefore developed from a volunteer activity into an important part of their life together.
Does Samuel Junqua Have Children?
As of now, there is no reliable public confirmation that Samuel and Emma Junqua have children.
Current public profiles of the couple discuss their marriage, careers and extensive work fostering animals but do not identify them as parents to a son or daughter.
Emma’s own 2026 professional biography discusses her household with Sam and their foster animals without mentioning children. Because the couple maintain some privacy around their personal life, it is preferable not to make assumptions beyond the information they have chosen to share publicly.
Who Are Samuel Junqua’s Parents?
Samuel Junqua’s parents are Jean-Claude Junqua and Yuriko Junqua. Their identities are confirmed through the official college athletics biography of Sam’s brother Jonathan.
The Junqua family raised three sons: Jonathan, Samuel and Fabien. Soccer was a major activity for all three boys, something Sam himself later confirmed when discussing his childhood with Houston Dynamo.
Junqua recalled that his family traveled frequently because all three sons were involved in soccer. The demands of practices, tournaments and matches meant the family spent considerable time moving between sporting commitments during the boys’ childhood.
The family eventually became closely associated with Saratoga, California, where Sam attended Saratoga High School before entering UC Berkeley.
Samuel Junqua’s Father: Jean-Claude Junqua
Jean-Claude Junqua is Samuel’s father. Although Sam’s professional soccer profiles generally do not discuss his father in great detail, Jonathan Junqua’s official Soka University biography clearly identifies Jean-Claude and Yuriko as the parents of Jonathan, Samuel and Fabien.
Jean-Claude appears to have maintained a relatively private life while his sons pursued their athletic and educational careers. Publicly available soccer sources do not provide enough verified information to describe his occupation or professional history in detail.
What is clear is that Jean-Claude and Yuriko were raising a household in which soccer became a major commitment. Sam later explained that all three boys played the sport and that their schedules required substantial family travel.
This environment helped expose Samuel to organized soccer from an early age. He eventually developed with De Anza Force before becoming a collegiate defender at California and then a professional MLS player.
Samuel Junqua’s Mother: Yuriko Junqua
Yuriko Junqua is Samuel Junqua’s mother. Like Jean-Claude, she is named in Jonathan Junqua’s official university biography as one of the parents of the three brothers.
The Junqua family also had an international element during the children’s early years. Jonathan’s biography states that he spent approximately two years living in Japan before the family returned to the United States and settled in Saratoga.
Because reliable sources provide limited personal information about Yuriko herself, details about her occupation and background should not be filled in using assumptions based on her name or the family’s time in Japan.
Her publicly documented role is primarily that of a mother within a highly active soccer family whose three sons all participated in the sport.
Does Samuel Junqua Have Siblings?
Yes. Samuel Junqua has two brothers, Jonathan Junqua and Fabien Junqua.
This is confirmed directly by Soka University’s official biography of Jonathan, which names Samuel and Fabien as his two siblings. Sam himself independently confirmed that he grew up in a household with three boys who all played soccer.
The brothers therefore shared more than a family connection: soccer was an important common interest throughout their childhood.
Samuel Junqua’s Brother: Jonathan Junqua
Jonathan Junqua is one of Samuel’s brothers and played college soccer for Soka University of America.
Jonathan attended Saratoga High School, where he was a four-year varsity soccer player. He later joined Soka University and became a regular defender for the Lions.
His college career included leadership responsibilities, with Jonathan serving as a team captain. Soka’s profile also documents his strong academic involvement, including Scholar Athlete recognition and participation in university organizations.
Jonathan’s biography provides particularly valuable information about the entire Junqua family because it identifies his parents as Jean-Claude and Yuriko and his brothers as Samuel and Fabien.
The profile also states that Jonathan spent two years living in Japan before returning to the United States and growing up in Saratoga. He spoke both Japanese and French, illustrating the international experiences that formed part of his upbringing.
Jonathan married Kana Chin in the summer of 2015, according to his official Soka biography.
Samuel Junqua’s Brother: Fabien Junqua
Fabien Junqua is Samuel’s other brother and the third son of Jean-Claude and Yuriko.
Like Samuel and Jonathan, Fabien also played soccer while growing up. Houston Dynamo’s profile of Sam confirms that all three brothers were involved in the sport and that their family regularly traveled because of their soccer schedules.
Jonathan’s Soka University biography additionally reported in 2015 that Fabien was preparing to play soccer at UC Berkeley.
Fabien has maintained a much lower public profile than Samuel, and there is limited authoritative information available about his later sporting or professional career. For that reason, it is better not to add career details that cannot be verified through dependable sources.
Soccer in the Junqua Family
Soccer was clearly a major part of everyday life in the Junqua household. Sam described his childhood family as having “three boys playing soccer,” explaining that their sporting commitments resulted in frequent travel.
Jonathan played throughout high school and college, Fabien was also involved in the game, and Samuel eventually developed far enough to make soccer his profession.
Sam attended Saratoga High School and played youth soccer with De Anza Force. He later remained close to home when he joined the University of California, Berkeley.
At Cal, Junqua developed into an important defender for the Golden Bears. Between 2015 and 2018, he made 68 college appearances and also earned significant academic recognition, including Pac-12 All-Academic honors.
That progression eventually led Houston Dynamo to select him eighth overall in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft.
Samuel Junqua’s Childhood and Family Life
Junqua has provided occasional glimpses of what family life was like before professional soccer. One interesting detail concerns the family’s pets.
Despite his later passion for rescuing cats, Sam said that his family did not have cats or dogs while he was growing up. Their soccer schedule and frequent travel made caring for traditional household pets more complicated.
The boys instead had smaller pets, including parakeets and aquatic turtles.
That childhood experience makes Sam’s later involvement with animal rescue particularly notable. After becoming a professional and establishing his own home, he adopted his first cat in Houston. That decision eventually helped lead him and Emma into fostering.
Samuel Junqua and Emma’s Life in Utah
Samuel’s professional career brought another major family move when he joined Real Salt Lake ahead of the 2025 MLS season.
Emma moved to Utah with him, and the couple continued fostering animals after settling in their new home. They also visited Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, where they spent time learning more about the organization’s work and interacting with rescued animals.
Real Salt Lake later extended Junqua’s stay with the club. In December 2025, RSL announced a new long-term contract that guaranteed him through the 2027-28 season with an additional club option.
Junqua specifically said after signing the new agreement that Real Salt Lake had been a strong fit for both himself and his family, indicating that life in Utah had become comfortable away from the field as well.
How Samuel Junqua’s Family Influenced His Journey
While Junqua has not given many long interviews specifically about his parents, his childhood comments reveal how heavily soccer shaped the family’s routine.
Jean-Claude and Yuriko were raising three sons who all participated in the sport, creating years of practices, competitions and travel. Jonathan went on to college soccer, Fabien also pursued the game, and Samuel eventually reached MLS.
As an adult, Sam created another important family partnership with Emma. Their relationship has survived several professional moves, including Houston, Dallas and Utah, while their shared commitment to animal rescue has developed alongside his soccer career.
The progression from girlfriend to fiancée and eventually wife also shows that Emma has been present through a significant portion of Junqua’s professional life.
Frequently Asked Questions About Samuel Junqua’s Family
Who is Samuel Junqua’s wife?
Samuel Junqua’s wife is Emma Junqua, formerly known as Emma Besier. They were longtime partners before becoming engaged during the 2024 offseason and later marrying.
What does Emma Junqua do?
Emma Junqua is a machine learning engineer with a background in data science and computational science. She is also involved in applying technology to animal-welfare issues.
When did Samuel Junqua and Emma get married?
The exact wedding date has not been widely documented by reliable public sources. Emma was still publicly described as Sam’s fiancée in September 2025, while by 2026 she was using the surname Junqua and publicly referring to Sam as her husband.
Does Samuel Junqua have children?
As of now, there is no reliable public confirmation that Samuel and Emma Junqua have children.
Who are Samuel Junqua’s parents?
Samuel Junqua’s parents are Jean-Claude Junqua and Yuriko Junqua.
Who is Samuel Junqua’s father?
Samuel’s father is Jean-Claude Junqua. He and Yuriko raised three sons who were all involved in soccer.
Who is Samuel Junqua’s mother?
Samuel’s mother is Yuriko Junqua. She is identified alongside Jean-Claude in the official Soka University biography of their son Jonathan.
How many siblings does Samuel Junqua have?
Samuel Junqua has two brothers, Jonathan Junqua and Fabien Junqua.
Who is Jonathan Junqua?
Jonathan Junqua is Samuel’s brother and a former college soccer player who represented Soka University of America. He was also a team captain during his college career.
Who is Fabien Junqua?
Fabien Junqua is Samuel’s other brother. He also grew up playing soccer, and Jonathan’s college biography reported that Fabien was preparing to play at UC Berkeley in 2015.
Did all three Junqua brothers play soccer?
Yes. Samuel himself confirmed that all three boys in the family played soccer while growing up.
Where did Samuel Junqua grow up?
Junqua grew up primarily in Saratoga, California, where he attended Saratoga High School before playing college soccer at UC Berkeley.
Laurinda Jocias is a football writer covering English women’s football, including the Women’s Super League. Her work focuses on players, clubs, and the continued development of the women’s game in the UK.
