I'm taking a break from blogging until the New Year, so this thread is all yours. If you have fun (and clean) stories about encounters with soccer stars in person, you can place them in the comments section.
I'll start it off with my stories...besides meeting a number of MLS players in person, as well as Bruce Arena, I ran into Enzo Francescoli (ex-River star) while in Buenos Aires when we were waiting in line for a ferry to Uruguay. I was holding my camera, but I didn't take a picture! "You know that's not going to happen again", I told my then girlfriend. And then there was sitting next to Brandi Chastain on the shuttle bus between the rental car station and the DFW terminal. I had followed the women's national team since the mid-90s and I still didn't recognize her. Some fan I am! :)
Happy New Year!
Before the US v Mexico game in Columbus me and my brothers were walking around the city taking in the sights. As we waited at a crosswalk, we saw Carlos Bocanegra, Bobby Convey and Pablo Mastroeni waiting on the other side, all in their team warmups. I snapped a couple of photos from across the street and then gave them a high five as we passed. We considered following them from a distance but we didn't want to be stalkers.
Posted by: John | January 03, 2006 at 11:34 AM
Geeze, I just remembered me and my brother also ran into / accosted Chris Armas at a St. John's University game. I think it was while I was back home for Christmas or Thanksgiving that SJU was playing against Hofstra (Armas' alum). They announce said thanks to Chris Armas for attending, and me and my brother we off to the races looking for something. We ran into him (shorter than I expected), got his autograph and was nice enough to chat for a short while. This was when he was out with his ACL injury, so we asked him about how his knee was, etc, etc. Good times, good times.
Posted by: John | January 03, 2006 at 11:38 AM