This Wednesday (8th), Taffarel celebrates his 58th birthday, with a beautiful career that is still ongoing with the Brazilian National Team. The goalkeeper of the 1994 Tetracampeonato continues to be active in football as the goalkeeper coach for the Seleção and Liverpool (ENG). Born in Santa Rosa (RS), in 1966, he was revealed by Internacional and joined the club in 1985.
At Colorado, he remained until 1990, a period in which he consolidated himself as one of the great goalkeepers in the country. With the prominence at the Gaucho club, he earned his first chances with the Seleção in 1988, a jersey he wore for 108 games until 1998, with 64 wins, 31 draws and only 13 losses. Throughout his career, he won the Copa América (1989 and 1997), Pan-American Games (1987) and was a silver medalist at the Seoul Olympics (1988), in addition to being called up for the 1990 and 1998 World Cups.
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In his last World Cup with Brazil, his performance in the penalty shootout against the Netherlands, in the semi-finals, immortalized one of the most memorable narrations in the history of the Brazilian National Team. When he prevented a shot, Galvão Bueno narrated Taffarel’s save as follows: “Get out, get out, get out, it’s yours, Taffarel!”
After his stint at Internacional, the goalkeeper moved to Parma (ITA), where he was a two-time Italian Cup champion (1991/92 and 2001/02) and a European Cup Winners’ Cup champion (1992/93). In his last season, he was loaned to Reggiana (ITA), the club for which he was called up for the 1994 World Cup.
In 1995, Taffarel returned to Brazil to play for Atlético-MG. With the Galo, he lifted the Campeonato Mineiro (1995) and the Copa Conmebol (1997) trophies. He then moved to Galatasaray (TUR), where he built a beautiful history until 2001, winning the Turkish League (1998/99 and 1999/00), the Turkish Cup (1998/99 and 1999/00), the UEFA Cup (1999/00) and the UEFA Super Cup (2000). After leaving the big clubs, he returned to the Turkish team to work as a goalkeeper coach for seven seasons.
Before retiring, Taffarel played for Parma until 2003.
Remembering Zagallo
Sambafoot Series launched a new documentary about the football legend Zagallo. Known as ‘Velho Lobo‘ and as superstitious as it gets, Zagallo helped shape what Brazilian football is nowadays — as a player and as a coach.
Binge the first four episodes available on Sambafoot’s Youtube channel. Stay tuned for upcoming releases as we keep telling this legend’s life story.
