Marcin Bułka (; born 4 October 1999) is a Polish professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...
who plays as a
goalkeeper
In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...
for
Ligue 1
Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...
club
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionPoland national team.
Club career
Early career
Bułka began his career in his native
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, playing in the youth ranks at Stegny Wyszogród, MDK Król Maciuś Club Płock and FCB Escola Varsovia, an official
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
satellite academy in Poland. In March 2016, whilst at FCB Escola Varsovia, Bułka underwent a trial with Barcelona, before trialling at English club Chelsea the following month.
Chelsea
In the summer of 2016, Bułka joined Chelsea. In September 2016, he signed his first professional contract with the club as well as making his under-18 debut for in a 4–2 win against Arsenal U18.
Paris Saint-Germain
2019–20: Debut season
After his contract at Chelsea expired, Bułka signed for
Ligue 1
Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...
club
Paris Saint-Germain
Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...
on a two-year contract. On 30 August 2019, he made his debut for the club, keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 win against
Metz
Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...
.
2020–21: Cartagena and Châteauroux loans
Bułka made his first and only appearance for PSG in the 2020–21 season in the first match of the campaign on 10 September 2020, which was against newly-promoted
Lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...
. With
Keylor Navas
Keilor Antonio "Keylor" Navas Gamboa (; born 15 December 1986) is a Costa Rican professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Argentine Primera División club Newell's Old Boys and the Costa Rica national team. He is regarded as one o ...
and Sergio Rico absent, he would play the entirety of the match, but made a costly mistake that handed Lens a 1–0 win.
On 28 September, Bułka signed a contract extension with Paris Saint-Germain until June 2025. He was immediately loaned out to Spanish
Segunda División
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...
club Cartagena. Eventually, his loan was cut short, and he left in the January transfer window.
On 31 January 2021,
Ligue 2
Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...
club
Châteauroux
Châteauroux ( ; ; ) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French.
Climate
Châteauroux te ...
signed Bułka on loan until the end of the season. He made his debut in a 4–0 win against Chambly on 2 February. However, in late February, he suffered an injury to his right ankle, ruling him out of play for "several weeks" according to the club. Bułka made his return to play in a 1–0 loss to
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
on 17 April.
Nice
On 5 August 2021, Bułka joined Ligue 1 side
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million2021–22 season, he played in all of the club's
Coupe de France
The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...
matches, and one league match against Clermont. On 1 June 2022, his move to Nice was made permanent.
International career
After previously representing Poland at under-18 and under-19 level, on 6 September 2018, Bułka made his under-20 debut for Poland against
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
in a 3–0 loss.
On 4 September 2023, he received his first senior team call-up for the
UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying
The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...
matches against
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
and
Albania
Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
, on 7 and 10 September 2023 respectively, replacing the injured Kamil Grabara. Bułka made his debut the same year on 21 November in a
friendly match
An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...
against
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
.
On 7 June 2024, he was selected in the 26-man squad for
UEFA Euro 2024
The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...
as a third-choice goalkeeper behind
Wojciech Szczęsny
Wojciech Tomasz Szczęsny (; born 18 April 1990) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Barcelona.
After starting his club career at Legia Warsaw, Szczęsny signed for Arsenal in January 2006, where he made his ...
and
Łukasz Skorupski
Łukasz Skorupski (born 5 May 1991) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Bologna and the Poland national team.
Club career Early career
Born in Zabrze, Skorupski started his professional career with Górnik Za ...
, and remained on the bench for all three of Poland's fixtures at the tournament.
Personal life
On 27 May 2020, Bułka was involved in a
traffic collision
A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...
near the town of
Wyszogród
Wyszogród is a town in central Poland, in Masovian Voivodeship, in Płock County, by the Vistula River. The population of Wyszogród was 2,793 in 2004.
History
The settlement dates back to the 7th century, when there was a Slavic pagan temple ...
, Poland. He was driving a rented
Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its su ...
on a motorway and collided with an individual driving a
Hyundai
Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups:
* Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested
** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...
in the opposite direction while attempting an overtake maneuver. A 56–year old man was injured during the crash and suffered several fractures, while Bułka was left unharmed. Bułka admitted responsibility for the collision. It was reported that he could face up to three years in jail after potentially breaking article 177 of
Polish law
The Polish law or legal system in Poland has been developing since the first centuries of Polish history, over 1,000 years ago. The public and private laws of Poland are codified.
The supreme law in Poland is the Constitution of Poland. Po ...
.
Career statistics
Club
International
Honours
Chelsea
*
U18 Premier League
The Professional Development League is a system of English youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Football Association via the Elite Player P ...
FA Youth Cup
The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...
UEFA Youth League
The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...
Ligue 1
Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...
Coupe de France
The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...