Maksym Danylo Kowal (born June 4, 1991) is a Canadian professional

soccer player 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 le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for Greifswalder FC.

Early life

Kowal was born in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, growing up in nearby

Mississauga, Ontario Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

and is of Ukrainian descent. He began playing youth soccer with USC Karpaty, later moving to the Erin Mills Eagles at U14 level.

Club career

College and Semi-pro

Kowal attended the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

beginning in 2009 and played for the

soccer team Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

. During his college tenure he played in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

with

Des Moines Menace Des Moines Menace is an American soccer team based in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1994, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The Menace have had sustained success in USL League Two duri ...

and

Toronto Lynx Toronto Lynx was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1997, the team last played in the 2014 season of the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes ...

England

In 2013, he went abroad to England, first joining

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

club

Barnstaple Town F.C. Barnstaple Town Football Club is a football club based in Barnstaple, Devon, England. They are currently members of the and play at Mill Road. History The club was established in 1904 as Pilton Yeo Vale, and were founder members of the North ...

Afterwards, he joined

Tiverton Town F.C. Tiverton Town Football Club are an English football club based in Tiverton, Devon. The club are currently members of the and play at Ladysmead. History The club was established in 1913 as Tiverton Athletic, and initially played at the Athle ...

He then joined eighth tier Carlton Town F.C.

Poland

In 2015, he joined Polish second-tier club

Widzew Łódź RTS Widzew Łódź () is a Polish football club based in Łódź. The club was founded in 1910. Its official colours are red and white, hence their nicknames ''Czerwona Armia'' (Red Army) and ''Czerwono-biało-czerwoni'' (Red-white-reds). History ...

in the

I liga I liga ( pl, Pierwsza liga, ), currently named Fortuna I liga due to its sponsorship by Fortuna, is the men's second professional association football division of the Polish football league system, below the Ekstraklasa and above the II liga vi ...

, however, due to procedural reasons with having arrived from a non-professional club, he was unable to be registered to be eligible for league matches. Widzew was relegated at the end of the season and went bankrupt and was relegated to the fifth tier, and subsequently, in July 2015, Kowal joined tird-tier club

Raków Częstochowa Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa Spółka Akcyjna (commonly referred to as Raków Częstochowa, or simply Raków) is a Polish professional football club, based in Częstochowa, that competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of na ...

in the

II liga II liga (Druga Liga, ), currently named eWinner II liga due to sponsorship reasons by eWinner, is a Polish football league that sits at the third tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season ''II Liga'' referr ...

. In February 2016. he joined Olimpia Zambrów on a six-month loan. The following season he joined

ŁKS Łódź ŁKS Łódź (''Łódzki Klub Sportowy Łódź''; ) is a Polish sports club based in Łódź. They are best known for their football club but are represented in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, athletics and in the past ice ...

helping them win promotion that season.

New Zealand

In 2017, he joined

ISPS Handa Premiership The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

side Tasman United in the New Zealand first tier, being recommended by a friend who played in the league. In the offseason, he joined

North Wellington AFC North Wellington AFC is association football club based in the northern suburbs of Wellington, New Zealand. They currently compete in the Central Premier League. History Early history It was founded in 1972 as an amalgamation of the Onslow (foun ...

in New Zealand's second tier

Central Premier League The Central League is an amateur status league competition run by Capital Football for Association football clubs located in the southern and central parts of the North Island, New Zealand. From 2021 it is at the second level of New Zealand Footb ...

, where he helped lead the team to the league championship and won the Golden Boot as the league's top goalscorer with 23 goals, while also adding another three goals in the

2018 Chatham Cup The 2018 Chatham Cup (known as the ISPS Handa Chatham Cup for sponsorship reasons) is New Zealand's 91st annual knockout football competition. The 2018 competition will have a preliminary round and four rounds proper before quarter-finals, sem ...

. He was also named the league player of the year. In September 2018, he then returned to the top tier for the new season, joining

Canterbury United Canterbury United Dragons are a semi-professional football club from Christchurch, New Zealand. The team plays most of its matches at English Park in Christchurch, though they occasionally play in Nelson. The club last played in the ISPS Handa P ...

Canada

In 2019, he returned to the North American continent to play in

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league in the Canadian so ...

with

Vaughan Azzurri Vaughan Azzurri is a Canadian semi-professional soccer team based in Vaughan, Ontario, that currently competes in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. The semi-professional team was founded in 2014 by the Vaughan Soccer Club, which ...

. He featured in the

2019 Canadian Championship The 2019 Canadian Championship was the twelfth edition of the Canadian Championship, contested from May 15 to September 25, 2019. Montreal Impact won their fourth Canadian Championship title (their tenth Voyageurs Cup) and earned a berth in the ...

against

HFX Wanderers FC HFX Wanderers Football Club, commonly known as HFX Wanderers, and spoken as Halifax Wanderers, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League at the top of t ...

. In July, he scored a hat trick against

Durham United FA Pickering Football Club, commonly known as Pickering FC, is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Pickering, Ontario. The club was founded in 1984 as a youth soccer club and added its semi-professional club in League1 Ontario in 201 ...

in 21 minutes. In his debut season with Vaughan he finished as the league's top goalscorer, winning the Golden Boot, as well as being named league MVP. In late 2019, he played in the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

with

FC Ukraine United FC Ukraine United is a Canadian soccer club founded in 2006. The team is currently a member of the Canadian Soccer League a league that is not sanctioned by any FIFA recognized body. Their home venue is located at Centennial Park Stadium in Etob ...

. On August 10, 2020, Kowal signed with

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's Association football, soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary nationa ...

side

Atlético Ottawa Atlético Ottawa is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home games at TD Place Stadium, TD Place. The team was founded in 2020 by Spa ...

. He made his debut in Ottawa's inaugural match on August 15 against York9, coming on as a substitute and playing out a 2–2 draw.

Germany

On October 27, 2020, Kowal joined German club

Germania Halberstadt VfB Germania Halberstadt is a German football club from Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt. History The club was founded on 26 October 1949 as ''Betriebssportgemeinschaft Reichsbahn Halberstadt'' before being renamed ''BSG Lokomotive Halberstadt'' ...

in the fourth tier

Regionalliga Nordost The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin. It i ...

. A day later, he made his debut for the club scoring a goal against Chemie Leipzig. He celebrated the goal by taking off his jersey, which earned him a second yellow card, resulting in him being ejected from the match. He then had to return to Canada, due to travel issues, before returning to Germany, however, the season was suspended soon after for the remainer of 2020, due to the second wave of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In July 2022, Kowal joined newly promoted side Greifswalder FC in the same division.

Personal life

Born in

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

in Canada, Kowal's family has Ukrainian origin, although his parents were both born in Poland. He holds dual citizenship with Poland and Canada. His father played professional basketball professional in Poland with AZS Szczecin and

AZS Koszalin AZS Koszalin is a Polish basketball team, based in Koszalin. AZS currently plays in the I Liga, the second tier Polish basketball league. History The AZS Koszalin sports club was founded on 8 October 1968. The founding fathers participating in th ...

. He attended St. Paul Secondary School in Mississauga and played youth soccer for the Erin Mills Eagles SC, where he won the U18 provincial championship in 2009.

Career statistics

References

External links

* *
Maksym Kowal
at FuPa {{DEFAULTSORT:Kowal, Maksym 1991 births Living people Association football forwards Canadian soccer players Soccer players from Toronto Canadian expatriate soccer players Expatriate association footballers in New Zealand Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Poland Expatriate soccer players in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Canadian expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Canadian people of Ukrainian descent II liga players New Zealand Football Championship players League1 Ontario players Canadian Soccer League (1998–present) players Canadian Premier League players Vaughan Azzurri players Canadian people of Polish descent III liga players Regionalliga players Barnstaple Town F.C. players Carlton Town F.C. players Des Moines Menace players ŁKS Łódź players Olimpia Zambrów players Raków Częstochowa players Tiverton Town F.C. players Toronto Lynx players Widzew Łódź players Tasman United players FC Ukraine United players Atlético Ottawa players VfB Germania Halberstadt players