Taffarel

Cláudio André Mergen Taffarel (born 8 May 1966) works as the goalkeeping coach for Brazil’s national team and previously played as a goalkeeper. He started his senior career in 1985 with Internacional in Brazil, then moved to Parma, Reggiana, Atlético Mineiro, and Galatasaray. After a second stint at Parma, he retired in 2003.

Taffarel earned over 100 caps for Brazil. He was crucial to the country’s 1994 World Cup win and played in eight other major international tournaments across a decade. He won the Copa América in 1989 and 1997, finished as World Cup runner-up in 1998, and took a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea.

Born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, to Italian Brazilian ancestry, Taffarel started at Internacional but played only 14 Série A games in five years, though he received the Golden Ball award for 1988. In 1990, he joined Parma, newly promoted to Serie A. According to a 2003 article, the move had commercial motives: Parmalat owner Calisto Tanzi wanted Taffarel to front an ad campaign after the company expanded into Brazil. Taffarel became the first non-Italian goalkeeper in Serie A and played all 34 league games the next season under Nevio Scala, helping Parma finish sixth and qualify for the UEFA Cup.

He won the Coppa Italia in 1992 and the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1993. However, after shaky performances and a rule limiting non-Italian players to three in the starting XI—Scala usually picked Faustino Asprilla, Tomas Brolin, and Georges Grün—Taffarel lost his place to Marco Ballotta and later Luca Bucci.

In 1993, now a backup at Parma, Taffarel moved to fellow Serie A side Reggiana, where he started regularly and helped the team narrowly avoid relegation. But he was dropped in 1994 and, before and after that year’s World Cup, had no professional club. He played amateur football for his local church, sometimes as a centre-forward. In 1995, he returned to Brazil and spent three years with Atlético Mineiro.

On 24 June 1998, while still with Brazil at the World Cup in France, Taffarel signed a two-year deal with Galatasaray at Disneyland Paris. The transfer fee was about $1.5 million to Atlético Mineiro. At Galatasaray, he won six major trophies in three years, including two Süper Lig titles, the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup, and the 2000 UEFA Super Cup. In the UEFA Cup final—a 0–0 draw followed by a 4–1 penalty shootout win over Arsenal—he was named man of the match.

He ended his career back at Parma, joining in 2001. Mostly second-choice behind Sébastien Frey, he started both legs of the 2002 Coppa Italia final, which Parma won against Juventus. He retired in 2003 at age 37 after one and a half seasons, turning down an offer from Empoli because his car broke down on the way to sign, which he called a “sign of God.”

Taffarel was Brazil’s starting goalkeeper at the 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship in the USSR, which Brazil won. His senior debut came on 7 July 1988 in the Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup, where he played all four games and conceded two goals as Brazil won the tournament. He also started in the 1989 Copa América, which Brazil won. Over his ten-year international career, he played in five Copa América tournaments, winning again in 1997 and finishing runner-up in 1991 and 1995. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he earned a silver medal, saving three penalties against West Germany—one in regulation and two in the shootout. He was part of Brazil’s 1990 World Cup squad, eliminated in the round of 16 by Argentina, conceding just two goals in the tournament.

At the 1994 World Cup, Taffarel started, allowing one goal in the group stage and two in the knockout rounds, plus two penalty kicks in the final shootout win over Italy. Four years later in France, he helped Brazil reach a second straight World Cup final, his last international appearance, but Brazil lost 3–0 to the hosts. Before the final, he saved two penalties in a 4–2 shootout win over the Netherlands in the semi-finals. He also played for Brazil’s third-place finish at the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup. In total, Taffarel made 101 appearances for Brazil, the most of any goalkeeper in the country’s history.