Former player of the Ukrainian national team Artem Fedetskyi spoke in an interview with Denys Boyko about his political career.
Artem Fedetskyi— While playing for Karpaty, I had, as I recall, two days off. I went to Lutsk, and then I got a call from the Deputy Head of the President’s Office, Serhiy Trofimov (I’ve known him for a long time, back when he was with 'Kvartal 95′). He said, «Fedya, hi, there’s this thing.» At that time, I hadn’t personally considered or planned on getting into politics. «Let’s do it like this, a majoritarian district.» I said, «Serhiy, what politics? I’m still playing football.»
And he passed the phone to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I immediately said, «Oh, Vovchik, hi! Oh, I’m sorry, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych...» And he said, «Fedya, stop it, cut it all out.» And he made me an offer. He said, «I’ve known you for a long time, I know what kind of person you are, I’d like to invite you to join my team.»
To avoid any speculation: we were all indeed familiar with the '95 Kvartal' team. Even before Volodymyr Oleksandrovych became President, we were in touch. It was absolutely genuine, open communication. We had friendly and normal relationships. So don’t speculate on this, friends, it was all normal.
I accepted the offer after weighing all the pros and cons. What I saw, traveling around the district — how things were, how people didn’t trust the authorities... And Lviv is such a specific region. After all, 'Hetman' Poroshenko was there. And somehow, being from this team, I wasn’t really accepted.
Met with voters, communicated, traveled around the villages, the districts. They asked me, provoked me, if I liked everything in Zelenskyy’s program. I said, «Not everything. But I have my own direction, my own vision, and if I have the opportunity to change something and help people live better, then I’ll try to do it.»
Many shouted, «Fedetskyi finished with football and wants to get to the trough.» To the trough? Well, yes, that’s what they wrote somewhere on the forums, there were provocateurs. I take this calmly. I say, «If everyone likes everything, then that’s how you’re satisfied. If I have the opportunity to change something for the better, then why not try it?»
I got... was third. I had, I think, 12,000. Dubnevych had 27,000, and Vasylchenco had 32,000 votes," Artem said.
