After only one season at Bielefeld, Buckley joined Borussia Dortmund for a reported transfer fee of €425,000, and signed a four-year contract.

Buckley's first season at Borussia Dortmund was largely unsuccessful as he failed to score in 28 league matches.

Widely regarded as bad signing, Buckley was loaned to Swiss club FC Basel 1893.

Gross relied on Buckley from the first moment and he played his team debut in the Swiss Cup away game on 26 August.

He also scored his first goal with the team in the same game as Basel won 6–1 against local amateur club FC Liestal.

[2] In the first round of the 2006–07 UEFA Cup Basel won 7–2 on aggregate against FK Rabotnički to qualified for the group stage.

[6] After returning to Dortmund in July 2007, Buckley was able to regain his place in the Borussia squad for the 2007–08 season, but fell out of favour after the arrival of new manager Jürgen Klopp.

Buckley made his international debut for the South Africa national team in a friendly against Zambia on 20 May 1998.