Right after I've decided to start traveling outside of Ukraine I began to meet very famous and relatively famous people. Everything begins when I was getting my foreign passport back in Ukraine...
Marko Devic
To travel outside of Ukraine, every Ukrainian needs to get special foreign passport. I was getting mine in the city of Kharkov. At the same time, Serbian football player from the local club was getting his Ukrainian passport to be eligible to play for Ukrainian national team. The name of the player was Marko Devic. He ended up playing 35 games for Ukrainian national football team scoring 7 goals.
Leonid Kuchma
My first trip out of Ukraine was to the Czech republic in 2008. I was visiting the beautiful town of Karlovy Vary together with a bunch of Ukrainian students. We were promenading the street and suddenly I saw former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma walking with 2 bodyguards. He wasn't popular figure in Ukraine at the time, but we still ended up talking to him and taking some photos.
Stefan Jovetic
In 2010 I've moved to the beautiful and tiny country of Montenegro. This country has only 600,000 people and "everyone knows everyone" there. E.x. my former colleague was a nephew of Predrag Mijatovic - ex-player for Real Madrid. While walking in the downtown of Podgorica I've met Stefan Jovetic who had injury at the time and was back to the country and was hanging out with his friends.
Michel Platini
Michel Platini was head of UEFA and he used to come to Montenegro to visit Dejan Savicevic the head of Montenegrin football federation. One day they were sitting together in the cafe near me drinking coffee and discussing football affairs.
Angela Merkel
I first went to Berlin in Nov 2011. During this visit, I saw Angela_Merkel in the big shopping center in the downtown of Berlin. She just passed me in the fragrance section followed by few bodyguards.
Jerko Leko
In summer 2012 I went to Croatia. I managed to meet Jerko Leko twice(!) on the streets of Zagreb. I liked him a lot as a player and made sure to tell him that.
Clive Owen
Another strange thing happened during my 3 months stay in New York in 2013. Steven Soderbergh was shooting The Knick series starring Clive Owen right on my street in Brooklyn. The funny thing is that I meet Clive Owen later in the bar in Manhattan. What are the chances that you can meet the same person in NYC in 3 months?
Anna Wintour
While sitting on the doorsteps of some building in Manhattan and eating my lunch I saw Anna Wintour passing by. Some girl tried to get and autograph, but Anna was too busy.
Jake Gyllenhaal
I saw Jake Gyllenhaal in the men fashion store somewhere near Broadway and Houston. I was told by the shop assistant that Jake was visiting this store quite often.
Conclusion
Personally I was never obsessed with meeting famous people and celebrities, but I still decided to write this list cause it makes a good story and I'm starting to forget all the people I've see over the years. To be continued....