Former Man Utd & Milan goalkeeper reflects on career: ‘I often hung out with Beckham & Van Basten’

Massimo Taibi’s journey to professional football began not with ambition but with necessity, a missing goalkeeper at a youth game in Palermo that prompted someone to ask the forward if he fancied going between the posts. He never came back out.

That accidental beginning launched a career that took him to AC Milan, Man Utd and across the length and breadth of Serie A, and now the 56-year-old is channelling those experiences as sporting director at Pistoiese.

Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Taibi was warm and candid about the giants he encountered along the way. At Milan, he arrived to find Ruud Gullit alone in the dining room having a coffee on his first day. Marco van Basten left an even more lasting impression. “Marco was a gazelle,” Taibi recalled. “I often stayed behind with him after training. He had a unique elegance in everything he did.”

Taibi: ‘I was wrong to leave Man Utd’

It was at Manchester United, however, where perhaps the most memorable chapter of his career unfolded, however briefly. Sir Alex Ferguson personally collected him from the airport when he arrived from Venezia in 1999, a gesture that immediately set the tone.

“They had initially wanted to sign Toldo, then they bought me instead,” Taibi said. “Sir Alex came to the airport himself and introduced me to the entire board at eight in the evening. It was not something you could take for granted.”

David Beckham proved equally impressive up close. “I often stayed behind with him after training, he surprised me with the way he struck the ball, but above all with his attitude,” Taibi said. “From the outside he seems like a tabloid character, but in reality he was the first to arrive and the last to leave.”

His departure from Old Trafford remains his greatest regret. Despite Ferguson urging him to stay, learn the language and fight for his place, a family situation in Italy prompted a hasty exit.

“I had four years on my contract,” he said. “Ferguson told me to stay and play my cards. I was wrong to be impulsive.” At least, as he reflects with a smile, many people remember him for a headed goal he scored for Reggina rather than the mistakes, and that, he suggests, will do just fine.