Massimo Taibi (; born 18 February 1970) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for several clubs, mostly in Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

, B, and C1. He had a brief spell at English club Manchester United.

Career

Italy

Taibi started his career for

Licata Licata (, ; grc, Φιντίας, whence la, Phintias or ''Plintis''), formerly also Alicata (), is a city and ''comune'' located on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Salso River (the ancient ''Himera''), about midway between Ag ...

until 1989. He appeared only once, before moving to

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

, where he was a first-choice goalkeeper, playing 23 matches. After one season, he moved to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

for the 1990–91 season. As in his first club, he was not used at all, and shortly moved to

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps h ...

, where he played the following season. After that he moved to

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

. Taibi stayed there for five seasons, until the 1996–97 season, and appeared for most of the club's games. Piacenza thought his time was over, so they sold him to the club which had not played him, Milan. This time, Milan played him in half of the 1997–98 season's games as a backup to teammate Sebastiano Rossi. Then Milan sold him to

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

in 1998. In his first season with Venezia, he played in nearly every game.

Manchester United

In 1999, following an injury to Manchester United goalkeeper

Mark Bosnich Mark John Bosnich (born 13 January 1972) is an Australian former professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper, and sports pundit. He played in England for Premier League clubs Aston Villa, Manchester United and Chelsea. He also played in ...

, the reigning English and European champions purchased Taibi for £4.5 million on 31 August 1999. He made his debut against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, where he failed to claim a high ball from a free kick, allowing Sami Hyypiä to score; however, he later made a number of saves, including a one-on-one from Vladimír Šmicer. United went on to win 3–2 with Taibi getting the man of the match award. Taibi shared goalkeeping duties with fellow understudy

Raimond van der Gouw Raimundus Johannes Hendrikus van der Gouw (, born 24 March 1963) is a Dutch former professional footballer, who played as a goalkeeper. After a successful career with Vitesse in his native Netherlands, and well into his 30s, he moved to Manche ...

, taking responsibility for league matches while Van der Gouw started in the UEFA Champions League, even after Bosnich's recovery; however, a mistake against

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on 25 September 1999, when Taibi let a weak shot from

Matthew Le Tissier Matthew Paul Le Tissier (; born 14 October 1968) is a former professional footballer. Born in Guernsey, he won eight caps for the England national team. Le Tissier spent his entire professional club career with Southampton before turning to n ...

slip through his legs into the goal, led to him being dubbed "The Blind Venetian" by one newspaper. He only played once more for Manchester United, in a 5–0 defeat at Chelsea on 3 October 1999, United's first league defeat since losing to

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in December 1998.

Return to Italy

In January 2000, Taibi joined Reggina on loan until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, where he played regularly. After the loan spell ended, Manchester United made it clear that – although Taibi was available for transfer – another loan deal was out of the question, rejecting a bid from

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. In July 2000, Manchester United agreed to allow Taibi to rejoin Reggina for a fee of £2.5 million. On 1 April 2001, Taibi scored a goal with a header off a

corner kick A corner kick is the method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball goes out of play over the goal line, without a goal being scored and having last been touched by a member of the defending team. The kick is take ...

in the 87th minute against

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...

to equalise the score final score to a 1–1 draw at home. With the goal, Taibi was the second goalkeeper to score from open play in Serie A history after

Michelangelo Rampulla Michelangelo Rampulla (born 10 August 1962) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Born in Patti, Sicily, Rampulla initially had short stints with Sicilian amateur clubs, such as his local te ...

in 1992. After the 2000–01 season finished in relegation for Reggina, he was shifted to Atalanta as a replacement of Ivan Pelizzoli. In the summer of 2005, he went on loan to

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, serving as first-choice goalkeeper; the move became permanent in 2006, with Taibi however becoming the backup goalkeeper behind

Christian Abbiati Christian Abbiati (born 8 July 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Abbiati, who had been with AC Milan since 1998, started his career with Monza, and later played more than 300 official matches for Mil ...

. He made his seasonal debut on 13 January 2007. In the 2007–08 season, he joined Ascoli, as Torino acquired the services of Matteo Sereni. Taibi played 47 matches, before he announced his retirement from football in 2009.

Style of play

centre-forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

in his youth, whose role model was

Roberto Boninsegna Roberto Boninsegna ( born 13 November 1943) is an Italian former football player, who mainly played as a forward. After retiring, he worked as a football manager. As a player, he represented the Italian national side at two World Cups, reachin ...

, Taibi later switched to the position of goalkeeper. He was known in particular for his

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

-saving abilities as a shot-stopper. Taibi played a total of 292 Serie A games between 1993 and 2007; during his career he stopped 12 spot kicks in the Italian top flight, the joint-ninth-most penalties saved in Serie A history, alongside Emiliano Viviano, Luigi Turci and

Giuseppe Taglialatela Giuseppe "Pino" Taglialatela (born 2 January 1969) is an Italian former professional football player who played as a goalkeeper. He is club chairman of Lega Pro club Ischia. Playing career After developing in the Ischia Isolaverde Youth Secto ...

Honours

Piacenza *

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

: 1994–95 Manchester United * Intercontinental Cup: 1999

References

External links

* *
Video of Taibi's goal vs Udinese
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taibi, Massimo 1970 births Living people Italian footballers Footballers from Palermo Association football goalkeepers A.C. Milan players Como 1907 players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players Venezia F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Reggina 1914 players Atalanta B.C. players Torino F.C. players Ascoli Calcio 1898 F.C. players Premier League players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Italian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Italian expatriate sportspeople in England