Today the former goalkeeper is the sporting director at Pistoiese. His journey in football also took him to Milan and Manchester: “Giggs was my seatmate in the dressing room, I often stopped with Beckham after training. It also happened with Van Basten in Milan”
“Massimo, we’re missing the goalkeeper, what do you think about going?”. Taibi’s story between the posts starts like this, from a sudden absence of the home goalkeeper. “I was playing up front and even scoring, I found myself saving by chance.” The journey then took him to Milan, then to Manchester United up to a great tour in Serie A, mostly in the provinces. Piacenza, Venice, Atalanta and so on. Today he is 56 years old, he is the sports director at Pistoiese and he still has fun. “I live from football and I’m happy about it, I try to pass on my experience to the kids.”
Taibi, let’s start from the beginning. We were saying that you end up in goal by chance…
“I played in the rookies in a Palermo team, in the students the striker was Schillaci. I also played up front. I scored and had fun. Then one day they asked me: “The goalkeeper is missing, do you feel like going?”. I wasn’t convinced, but I tried. And I never left from there.”
As a goalkeeper he arrived in Trento in Serie C. In the meantime he was doing military service.
“Yes, I went back and forth between the camp and the barracks. An experience that left a mark on me: I learned a lot, especially about sacrifice and the importance of work.”
Then he found himself at Milan.
“How exciting! I remember the first day: I arrived in the dining room and there was only Gullit having coffee. We introduced ourselves, I had only seen him in the stickers”.
“Marco was a gazelle. I often stayed with him to kick at the end of training. He had a unique elegance, whatever he did.”
An anecdote about that Milan?
“Once there was a discussion between Ziege and Costacurta, in which the German reproached the senators for having little grouping together off the pitch. Billy replied ‘as long as we’re in the locker room you’re my brother, but I choose who to go to dinner with’. At the time it seemed a bit strange to me, but over time I can say that I agree with him. You don’t necessarily have to be best friends to function on the pitch. Then Capello: we didn’t find each other. But I’m sorry, I probably wasn’t yet at that level. I felt a little invisible in his eyes, though.”
Any other coaches he didn’t get along with?
“I would say Spalletti and Zaccheroni. Great coaches with whom the feeling didn’t develop, it can happen. However, I had an excellent relationship with Sacchi. Arrigo was obsessive in everything and took great care of the defensive phase. Furthermore, he was always a great man.”
You also had Sir Alex Ferguson. What is it like to be coached by him?
“A spectacle. It was 1999, I arrived in Manchester as a semi-unknown: they wanted to sign Toldo at the beginning, then they bought me who was playing for Venezia. And Sir Alex even came to pick me up at the airport and introduced me to the whole management. It was 8pm, it wasn’t an obvious gesture. We had a good relationship, even if at half-time of that Chelsea-Manchester United 5-0 win he gave me a dirty look that I still remember…”.
It was 1999, I arrived in Manchester as a semi-unknown. Sir Alex even came to pick me up at the airport and introduced me to the entire management.”
“I made a mistake and conceded a goal. At half-time he turned the dressing room upside down, when he got angry he made the walls shake. He took it out on everyone, even me. He looked at me badly and said to me: ‘Massimo, that save…’. But he would have kept me, I was wrong to leave. I had a family problem in Italy and I was in a hurry to resolve it.”
Is that your biggest regret?
“Yes, I had four years on my contract. With Liverpool I was the best on the pitch, then I made that mistake I was telling you about. Ferguson advised me to learn the language and stay to play my cards. I made a mistake in being impulsive.”
Let’s stay on that group. There were Beckham, Giggs and many other champions.
“Giggs was my seat next to me in the dressing room. I stopped with Becks many times after training. He amazed me with his way of kicking, but above all with his attitude. From the outside he seems like a tabloid character, in reality he was the first to arrive and the last to leave. He not only had quality, but also a lot of dedication.”
I stopped with Becks many times after training. He amazed me with his way of kicking and his attitude. From the outside he looks like a tabloid character”
At Milan he also met president Berlusconi.
““In ’97, when I returned from Piacenza, he wanted to know all the new signings. When it was my turn, he hugged me and said, ‘Welcome home.’ I thought he didn’t even know who I was. Instead he was informed about everything.”
Speaking of presidents, he found Zamparini in Venice.
“A madman, in a good sense. A volcanic man. He trusted too many people, all they had to do was tell him one thing and he believed it. Once he argued with Novellino, who after a draw at home with Sampdoria asked him to leave the locker room because he was shouting at us. The president went mad and decided to sack him. I intervened: ‘If you send him away, I’ll go with him’. After two hours he thought better of it. In the evening he called me to tell me he was keeping him. And in the end we were saved, also thanks to a super Chino Recoba”.
In closing, two cult passages: the first his famous long trousers.
“I became famous for the cap, the baggy shirts and the long trousers. They were part of my style.”
Second: the header.
“1st April 2001, Reggina-Udinese. I go up desperately and score with a header. And to think that Franco Colomba didn’t even want me to go up. Many remember me for that goal: better for this than for the ducks, come on…”.
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