Massimo Taibi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Massimo Taibi (born February 18, 1970 in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian football goalkeeper, who has played in several clubs, mostly in Italy's Serie A, B, and C1. He currently plays for Torino. He wears the number 70 for his club.
Taibi started his career for Italian side Licata in Serie B, and stayed there until 1989. He appeared for Licata only once, then moved to AS Trentino in Serie C1, where he was a first-choice goalkeeper, playing 23 matches. After one season, he moved to A.C. Milan in Serie A for the 1990-1991 season. As in his first club, he was not used at all, and shortly moved to C1 club Como, where he played the following season. After that he moved to Piacenza. Taibi stayed there for six years, until the 1996-1997 season, and appeared for most of the club's games. He had his best years during this period.
Piacenza thought his time was over, so they sold him to the club which had not played him, A.C. Milan. This time the club realized his true potential, and played him in half of the 1997-1998 season's games as a backup to fellow teammate Sebastiano Rossi. Then Milan sold him to another Serie A club, Venezia.
In his first season with Venezia, he played in nearly every game, but that was shortlived. The following year, he only played once. In 1999 English Premier League club Manchester United brought him over for a price of £4.4 million.
Taibi competed with other Manchester United keepers, Mark Bosnich and Raimond van der Gouw, for the first-team place, but lost out, after making a horrible gaffe against Southampton FC that resulted in a goal. Following this incident, a British newspaper dubbed him 'The Blind Venetian', as a pun on Venetian blinds. The mistake made him a household name in England and is included in almost every football blooper compilation. He only played four matches. He was then transferred to Reggina, where he was played regularly at the end of the 1999-2000 season and through the 2000-2001 season.
On April 1, 2001, he gained much popularity by scoring a goal with a header off a corner kick in the 87th minute of a Serie A match versus Udinese Calcio to equalize the score 1-1. This action, in which the goalkeeper crosses the entire pitch to try to help his team score, is commonly seen when a team is desperate to score and time is running out, but very rarely succeeds. Taibi joined Michelangelo Rampulla as the only goalkeepers to score from open play in Serie A history.[1]
After his two year spell at Reggina, he was shifted to Atalanta. In the summer of 2005, he went on loan to Torino F.C. and permanent move in 2006.
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| Torino F.C. - Current Squad |
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~ Abbiati | ~ Fontana | ~ Pagotto | ~ Taibi | ~ Balestri | ~ Brevi | ~ Cioffi | ~ Doudou | ~ Franceschini | ~ Martinelli | ~ Melara | ~ Orfei | ~ Pancaro | ~ Ungari | ~ Ardito | ~ De Ascentis | ~ Ferrarese | ~ Gallo | ~ Lazetić | ~ Musić | ~ Rosina | ~ Abbruscato | ~ De Sousa | ~ Muzzi | ~ Stellone | ~ Di Loreto | ~ Comotto | ~ Barone |
