Giuseppe "Pino" Taglialatela (born 2 January 1969) is an Italian former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He is club chairman of

Lega Pro The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

club

Ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west ...

Playing career

After developing in the Ischia Isolaverde Youth Sector, Tagliatela transferred to the

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Youth Sector, and was promoted to the first team during the 1987–88 season, as the club's third-choice keeper, behind Claudio Garella and Raffaele Di Rusco, failing to make an appearance with the club. Taglialatela began his professional playing career while on loan with

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

during the 1988–89 season, while they were in

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

; after appearing with

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

the following season, he began to gain attention from

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

clubs. Taglialatela moved to his native club Napoli in 1990 during their peak, but played in only three games, making his Serie A debut on 6 January 1991, in a 1–0 away defeat to

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

. After three loan spells at Serie B sides Palermo,

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A (in the 1972–73 and 1974–75 seas ...

, and

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

, he returned to Napoli, following

Giovanni Galli Giovanni Galli (; born 29 April 1958) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and currently a politician. In a professional career which spanned nearly two decades, he played in 496 Serie A games, mainly with F ...

's transfer to

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, playing with the club from 1993 until 1999. On this occasion, he was finally able to break into the first team, and became the club's number one keeper for several years, as well as the club's captain in 1999, also attracting attention from larger clubs, including

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a forme ...

, although he elected to remain with Napoli, despite the club's financial crisis. During his third stint with Napoli, he narrowly missed out on the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

during the 1996–97 season, as Napoli lost the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

. His later seasons with the club were less successful, as Napoli suffered Serie B relegation during the 1997–98 season, conceding numerous goals.

Fiorentina

After leaving Napoli, Taglialatela moved to

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

for 5 billion lire in a co-ownership deal (€2.582 million), where he played as understudy to

Francesco Toldo Francesco Toldo (; born 2 December 1971) is an Italian retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is regarded by pundits as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation. In a professional career which spanned two full decades, he m ...

, and later

Alexander Manninger Alexander Manninger (born 4 June 1977) is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played internationally for the Austria national team on 33 occasions, including at UEFA Euro 2008, and has represented football ...

. The club also signed Fabio Rossitto for 15 billion lire from Napoli, as well as selling

Emiliano Bigica Emiliano Bigica (born 4 September 1973) is an Italian former footballer who played as a midfielder. Honours ;Fiorentina *Coppa Italia: 1995–96 *Supercoppa Italiana: 1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes a ...

to Napoli. During his first season with the club, Taglialatela made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

debut in a 2–0 away defeat to

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

. In June 2000, Fiorentina signed Taglialatela outright; Bigica also joined Napoli outright. He won the

during his second season with Fiorentina; his third season in Florence was once again less successful, as Fiorentina were relegated to

Siena

Taglialatela subsequently moved to

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

for a season in 2002. After a year-long hiatus, he signed with

side

Benevento Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...

, before ending his career after a season with

, retiring in 2006.

Style of play

Due to his consistent performances, reactions, athleticism, and agility, Taglialatela earned the nicknames "pipistrello" (bat), and "

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

"; he was also known to be a specialist at saving penalty kicks; throughout his career he made 173 appearances in the Italian top–flight between 1991 and 2002, saving 12 penalties from 28 attempts, and he has the highest save percentage from spot kicks in Serie A history (42.9%). He has also stopped the joint–ninth–most penalties in Serie A history, alongside

Emiliano Viviano Emiliano Viviano (; born 1 December 1985) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Turkish Süper Lig club Fatih Karagümrük. Club career Brescia Born in Florence, Viviano is a product of Fiorentina and Brescia youth ...

Luigi Turci Luigi Turci (born 27 January 1970) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He retired after the 2006–07 season. His last club was Cesena in Serie B. He is currently active as goalkeeping coach of A.C. Milan. Foo ...

, and

Massimo Taibi Massimo Taibi (; born 18 February 1970) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for several clubs, mostly in Italy's Serie A, B, and C1. He had a brief spell at English club Manchester United. Career Italy Taib ...

Post-playing career

From February to May 2012 he worked as goalkeepers' coach for hometown club Ischia. In July 2014 he was named new chairman of hometown club Ischia.

Honours

Napoli *

: 1986–87 *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Fiorentina *Coppa Italia: 2000–01 Siena *

: 2002–03

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taglialatela, Giuseppe 1969 births Living people Footballers from the Metropolitan City of Naples Men's association football goalkeepers Italian men's footballers Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players ACR Siena 1904 players SSC Bari players Benevento Calcio players ACF Fiorentina players SSC Napoli players US Avellino 1912 players Palermo FC players