From Alphonso Davies to Taty Castellanos, from Thiago Almada to Ricardo Pepi, we’ve seen quite a few players transition from developing in Major League Soccer to shining in Europe’s top five leagues. The next ex-MLS star to make a name for himself in Europe could very well be Adam Buksa.
Born and raised in Kraków, Poland, Buksa’s footballing dreams were thrown into jeopardy when a doctor told him that his knees wouldn’t be able to handle the physical demands of the beautiful game. However, after two years off the pitch, Buksa decided to take another swing at the sport and joined Wisła Kraków’s academy at the end of his freshman year of high school. Buksa moved between Hutnik Kraków and Garbarnia Kraków—as well as a season with Italian side Novara’s Primavera squad—before making his senior debut with Lechia Gdańsk on July 25, 2014, in a 1-0 win against Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała. He was forced to wait another year before grabbing his first-ever senior goal against Pogoń Szczecin in the third match of the campaign, only to injure his foot immediately after and go 17 months without scoring.
After initially struggling with injuries at Pogoń Szczecin and Zagłębie Lubin, Buksa closed out the 2017/18 campaign with four goals and one assist in his last seven Ekstraklasa appearances. He parlayed this into a breakout 2018/19 campaign which saw him score 11 goals and provide four assists in 22 matches, followed by seven goals and four assists in 18 appearances in 2019, emerging as one of the top young center forwards in the Polish top flight with Pogoń Szczecin. These stellar displays attracted the attention of MLS side New England Revolution, who signed him to a three-year contract on December 12, 2019, for a fee of $4.5 million, making him the second-most expensive signing in the club’s history after Gustavo Bou.
“To be honest, I had never planned on leaving Europe. I planned on leaving the Ekstraklasa, but I never would have thought that MLS would be my next step,” stated Buksa in an exclusive World Soccer Talk interview. “However, when I talked to New England manager Bruce Arena, when I found out about the plan of the club, when I saw the training facility, and the rapid growth of the league, I thought, ‘OK, this might be a good idea.’ I also got a good offer, and I treated MLS as a great adventure and potentially a good mid-step between Poland and one of the top five leagues in Europe. This was the right approach, because after two and a half years, I fulfilled this plan by joining Racing Club de Lens, so both the club and myself were happy with that.”
Similarly to many others like Hakim Ziyech, Stephen Constantine, and Samuel Eto’o, Buksa has honed his footballing skills across multiple countries and continents, but his first-ever experience abroad came in New England. Buksa made his MLS debut on February 29, 2020, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 loss to CF Montréal. One week later, Buksa broke the deadlock early on in a 1-1 draw against Chicago Fire and became the first Revolution player to score in a home opener since Saër Sène in 2012. Little did he know it, but that would be his final appearance in nearly six months, as a deadly pandemic waged destruction and paralyzed life in his newly adopted community in Massachusetts.
“The pandemic was tough for everybody, regardless of which country you were located in, so that was also the case for me. One month after my girlfriend and I arrived in the US, the pandemic started, and I had only played twice in MLS. The first six months were a bit crazy; everybody was a bit unsure of what would happen, but fortunately, we came back to play in Orlando with the MLS is Back tournament, and then eventually everything went back to normal, which was good. I love discovering new countries and new cultures; I’m more curious and happy about such ideas than afraid of them. I’ve been to many countries during my football career, and I’ve really enjoyed that. I wouldn’t change any of the choices that I’ve made so far.”
Buksa scored seven goals and recorded an assist in 28 appearances to spearhead New England to the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to eventual winners Columbus Crew. 2021, meanwhile, saw Buksa ascend from second place in the club’s scoring charts to first place with 17 goals and four assists in 32 appearances as New England won their first trophy in 14 years with the Supporters’ Shield title. However, despite finishing with the best regular season record in MLS, they were unable to extend their success in the postseason. Buksa opened the scoring in the Conference Semifinal against New York City FC, who would equalize and force a 2-2 draw and a penalty shootout, where Sean Johnson thwarted Buksa’s spot-kick to prevail. While New York went on to win their first-ever MLS Cup, New England is still searching for its maiden championship.
The Polish target man followed that up with 11 goals and two assists in 13 appearances before moving to France in 2022, where an ankle injury condemned him to watching from the sidelines as Lens challenged PSG for the Ligue 1 title and qualified for the UEFA Champions League. Buksa bounced back in superb fashion in 2023/24 with 16 goals and two assists in 33 appearances, finishing atop Turkish side Antalyaspor’s scoring charts, before making the move to Danish heavyweights Midtjylland for €4.5 million. There, he racked up 15 goals and two assists in 39 appearances across all competitions in the 2024/25 campaign.
“The idea of joining Midtjylland was motivated by the desire to play European football. I joined after they became champions of Denmark, so the ultimate goal was to qualify for the UEFA Champions League. We were very, very close to making this happen, and if the game had ended in the 85th minute in Bratislava, we would have qualified for the Champions League. But football games take 90 minutes, and we conceded two easy goals at the end of the game and, as a result, qualified for the Europa League instead of the Champions League. It was a very painful moment, but the adventure and the experience of playing in the Europa League was huge. We did well in that campaign. We became vice-champions of Denmark, which was not a bad result, but the goal was to become champions once again. It was a good time, but I felt that after that year, I needed to take a different step.”
Buksa joined Serie A side Udinese on August 26 on a four-year deal, with the Zebrette paying €5 million for his services. After a rough transition to Italian football that saw him fail to score in his first five games, Buksa broke his duck in a 3-2 win against Lecce on October 25, but he has since failed to score in his next seven for Udinese.
At 29 years of age, Adam Buksa has already played in Poland, the USA, France, Türkiye, Denmark, and Italy, and he could very well be set to return to North America next summer. Buksa has scored seven goals and one assist in 25 appearances for Poland, and after playing an active role and scoring in their last major tournament, all signs point to him helping Poland’s attack in their mission to succeed in the world’s biggest tournament. But first, Poland needs to beat Albania in March before beating Ukraine or Sweden in order to secure their spot in Group F alongside Japan, the Netherlands, and Tunisia.
