The Polish centre-back signed for the Tykes in September 2020, and made his league debut ten days later when he started against Reading at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.
As league debuts go, it couldn’t have gone much worse for Helik as his side were defeated 2-0 by the Royals, and he was given his marching orders in the 42nd minute when he was shown a straight red card for a foul on Lucas Joao.
Things actually got worse for the Tykes that day, and they finished the game with nine men after Helik’s centre-back partner Mads Andersen was sent off after receiving two yellow cards.
It was far from an ideal start to life in English football for Helik, but it wasn’t long until Barnsley supporters saw the best of him.
Michał Helik overcame a shaky start to become a fantastic player for Barnsley
On the last day of the 2019–20 season, Barnsley narrowly avoided relegation to League One. The club made summertime additions to make sure they wouldn’t be involved in another relegation struggle in the 2020–21 season.
Helik was one of several new players brought in, and it’s safe to say that, having played his whole club career in the Polish Ekstaklasa, the Polish defender was something of an unknown.
Helik’s career at Barnsley had a terrible beginning, as was previously indicated, but manager Gerhard Struber was patient with the defender and saw success.
The Tykes had a terrible start to the 2020–21 campaign, but they quickly started to climb the standings once Valerien Ismael took Struber’s place. Helik played a key role in
The defender’s performance for Barnsley was so good that it led to his first-ever call-up to the Polish national team, where he ended up winning seven caps in 2021.
It became clear that Barnsley had found a hidden treasure in Helik, and astonishingly, despite their poor start to the season, he enabled them to make it to the Championship play-offs.
Helik and Barnsley, however, were unable to finish the fairytale and lost to Swansea in the play-off semifinals.
Barnsley finished bottom of the table the next season and were relegated, but Helik did well enough to be transferred to Championship team Huddersfield Town, who had advanced to the play-off final the year before.
The Polish defender is well-remembered at Oakwell, having made 89 appearances for Barnsley in total and scoring seven goals.
Michał Helik’s career since leaving Barnsley
Even though he was playing for a subpar Terriers team, Helik remained impressive after moving from Barnsley to rival Yorkshire team Huddersfield.
The impact the defender has made since signing in the summer of 2022 is evident as he earned the club’s Player of the Year title for the 2023–24 season after finishing second in the competition last season.
Despite being the club’s top goalscorer with nine goals, he was unable to prevent them from getting relegated this season. Given that Helik was the Terriers’ leading scorer despite playing defence, it’s reasonable to conclude that he wasn’t the cause of the team’s relegation.
Helik has one more year on his contract at the John Smith’s Stadium, but leaving would not be shocking at all because he is undoubtedly too talented to be playing League One football and has demonstrated his disinterest in the league following Barnsley’s 2022 relegation.
Given his contract status, he’s sure to attract a lot of suitors this summer. Despite having two Championship relegations on his resume, he’s
