Massimo Taibi

Italy

Taibi started his career for Licata until 1989. He appeared only once, before moving to Trentino, where he was a first-choice goalkeeper, playing 23 matches. After one season, he moved to Milan in Serie A for the 1990–91 season. As in his first club, he was not used at all, and shortly moved to Como, where he played the following season. After that he moved to Piacenza. 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 games as a backup to teammate Sebastiano Rossi. Then Milan sold him to Venezia 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, the reigning English and European champions purchased Taibi for £4.5 million on 31 August 1999. He made his debut against Liverpool, 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, taking responsibility for league matches while Van der Gouw started in the UEFA Champions League, even after Bosnich's recovery; however,…

A centre-forward in his youth, whose role model was Roberto Boninsegna, Taibi later switched to the position of goalkeeper. He was known in particular for his penalty-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.

Piacenza

Serie B: 1994–95 Manchester United

Intercontinental Cup: 1999