July 11 – The Blind Venetian | On This Football Day

July 11 – The Blind Venetian

We Brits do love losers don’t we? We love nothing more than cheering on a complete no-hoper, as Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards, Tim Henman and Frank Spencer testify.

Perhaps that is why some of the worst players in football history are so fondly thought of. One of these that Man United fans especially will remember, is comedy goalkeeper Massimo Taibi, dubbed ‘The Blind Venetian’ by one newspaper.

Taibi was one in a long line of ill-fated transfer decisions made by Sir Alex Ferguson, who was desperate to fill the gaping void left by Peter Schmeichel in 1999. Taibi made a total of four error-prone appearances for United after his £4.5 million move from Venezia before being shipped back to Italy.

It was on this day in 2000 that Ferguson admitted his mistake and agreed to sell Taibi to Italian club Reggina for £2.5 million (a £2 million loss), a mere 10 months after he had bought him.

Taibi was in goal at home to Southampton when he let a tame powerless shot by Matthew le Tissier squeeze underneath him. The shot was so weak it almost didn’t have enough power to bobble over the line. This gaffe makes number seven in a collection of Man United cock-ups (which are always good to see) which you can see below.

The Italian followed this up by conceding five goals to Chelsea which proved too much, and prompted his hasty departure from Old Trafford.

It was while playing for Reggina that Taibi achieved some rather more positive notoriety when he scored a header from a corner in a match against Udinese Calcio to level the game at 1-1. In doing so, he joined Michelangelo Rampulla as the only goalkeepers to score from open play in Serie A history.