[3][4] He competed for the Soviet Union at the 1976 Summer Olympics, at which he won a bronze medal.

[5] Buryak played for a number of teams in the Soviet Union, most notably for Dynamo Kyiv, of which he was also the sporting manager.

[6] As a player, he had a tremendous impact on his team, similar to what Pavel Nedvěd or Zinedine Zidane had on theirs.

[7][8][9] In 1979 Buryak played couple of games for Ukraine at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR.

Making this choice, the Football Federation set the target for the new coach to get into the final part of the 2002 European Championship.