Cláudio Taffarel
Encyclopedia
Cláudio André Mergen Taffarel (born 8 May 1966 in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul
) is a retired Brazil
ian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is of German
and Italian descent.
During an 18-year career, he played professionally for five clubs, namely Parma
, Atlético Mineiro
and Galatasaray
.
The recipient of more than 100 caps
for Brazil
, Taffarel helped the national team win the 1994 World Cup
, also appearing in other eight major international tournaments over the course of one full decade.
, but only appeared in a maximum of 14 top division
games during his five-year spell, being however awarded the Silver Ball
award for the 1988 season. In 1990, he moved abroad and joined Parma A.C.
in Italy
, freshly promoted to Serie A
for the first time in the club's history; he proceeded to appear in all 34 league games in the following season as the Emilia-Romagna
outfit overachieved for a final sixth position and qualified to the UEFA Cup.
In 1993 Taffarel, already only a backup at Parma, signed for fellow top-divisioner A.C. Reggiana 1919
, being first-choice as the club narrowly avoided relegation. After that season, he returned to his country and played three seasons with Clube Atlético Mineiro
.
Aged 32, Taffarel returned to Europe
and joined Galatasaray SK
, winning six major trophies during his three-year stint, most notably two Süper Lig and the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup, a 4–1 penalty shootout defeat of Arsenal
(0–0 after 120 minutes); he closed out his career at the of 37 with former club Parma, after one 1/2 seasons as second-choice, and after having refused an offer from Empoli FC
: his car broke while he was going to sign the contract, and he defined such event as a "sign of God".
In 2004, Taffarel rejoined Galatasaray as goalkeeper coach (under former teammate Gheorghe Hagi
), returning to the club in the same predicament for the 2011–12 season
.
on 7 July 1988 in the Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup
, playing all four games and conceding two goals in an eventual win. He was also in goal for the following year's Copa América
, in another international conquest (during his 10-year career, he appeared in five editions of the tournament).
Taffarel was the starter for Brazil during the 1994 FIFA World Cup
in the United States
, only allowing one goal in the first round and two in the knock-out phases (excluding two penalty kicks
in the final). Four years later
, in France
, he helped the national team finish second, notably saving two penalties in the 4–2 shootout win against the Netherlands
in the semifinals.
Taffarel gained 101 caps with the national team. Upon his retirement in 2003, coach Carlos Alberto Parreira
offered to arrange a farewell match but the player refused, stating that he was not interested in such fanfare. He did return to play alongside Romário
in late 2004 against Mexico
to commemorate the 1994 World Cup victory at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
.
|1985||rowspan="6"|Internacional
||rowspan="6"|Série A
||1||0||||||||||1||
|-
|1986||2||0||||||||||2||
|-
|1987||10||0||||||||||10||
|-
|1988||14||0||||||||||14||
|-
|1989||12||0||||||5||||17||
|-
|1990||11||0||||||||||11||
|-
|1990/91||rowspan="3"|Parma
||rowspan="3"|Serie A
||34||0||||||||||34||
|-
|1991/92||34||0||||||||||34||
|-
|1992/93||6||0|||1|||||||||7
|-
|1993/94||Reggiana
||Serie A
||31||0||||||||||31||
|-
|1995||rowspan="4"|Atlético Mineiro
||rowspan="4"|Série A
||22||0||||||4||||26||
|-
|1996||27||0||||||||||27||
|-
|1997||24||0||||||4||||28||
|-
|1998||0||0||||||||||||
|-
|1998/99||rowspan="3"|Galatasaray
||rowspan="3"|Süper Lig||32||0||||||8||||40||
|-
|1999/00||30||0||||||17||||47||
|-
|2000/01||27||0||||||15||||42||
|-
|2001/02||rowspan="2"|Parma
||rowspan="2"|Serie A
||6||0||8||||1||||15||
|-
|2002/03||0||0||||||||||||
136||0||||||||||||
114||0||||||||||||
129||0||||||||||||
379||0||||||||||||
|}
|1988||7||0
|-
|1989||16||0
|-
|1990||7||0
|-
|1991||10||0
|-
|1992||2||0
|-
|1993||15||0
|-
|1994||9||0
|-
|1995||5||0
|-
|1996||0||0
|-
|1997||15||0
|-
|1998||15||0
|-
!Total||101||0
|}
started up a player agency, with the focus mainly on promising youngsters.
During the 1998 World Cup, when the Brazilian national team was training at Trois-Sapins stadium in Ozoir-la-Ferrière
, a suburb southeast of Paris
, the town's mayor
proposed renaming the stadium after him.
Taffarel is a born-again Christian who has actively shared his faith in numerous venues. He has been a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes since 1988. He has 17 children, 15 of them adopted
.
Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul
Santa Rosa is a town in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, located at latitude 27º52'15" and longitude 54º28'53" at a height of 277 meters above sea level. It has an area of 488.42 km²...
) is a retired Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is of German
German-Brazilian
A German Brazilian is a Brazilian person of ethnic German ancestry or origin...
and Italian descent.
During an 18-year career, he played professionally for five clubs, namely Parma
Parma F.C.
Parma Football Club , commonly referred to as just Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia–Romagna that will compete in Serie A for the 2011–12 season, having finished in twelfth position last season. Founded as Verdi Foot Ball Club in July 1913, the club changed its...
, Atlético Mineiro
Clube Atlético Mineiro
Clube Atlético Mineiro , are a Brazilian football club based in Belo Horizonte, the oldest in the city. Founded in 1908, they play in the Campeonato Mineiro and Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Brasileirão. Atlético Mineiro have been Brazilian champions once, state winners a record 40 times and...
and Galatasaray
Galatasaray S.K. (football team)
Galatasaray Anonim Şirketi is a Turkish football club, part of the Galatasaray S.K. multi-sport club of Istanbul. Galatasaray is a major sports club in Turkey, holding 17 Turkish Super League titles and the highest number of Turkish Cups....
.
The recipient of more than 100 caps
Cap (sport)
In sports, a cap is a metaphorical term for a player's appearance on a select team, such as a national team. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of association football...
for Brazil
Brazil national football team
The Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international men's football and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation , the governing body for football in Brazil. They are a member of the International Federation of Association Football since 1923 and also a member of the...
, Taffarel helped the national team win the 1994 World Cup
1994 FIFA World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in nine cities across the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988...
, also appearing in other eight major international tournaments over the course of one full decade.
Club career
Taffarel started playing for Sport Club InternacionalSport Club Internacional
Sport Club Internacional is a Brazilian football team and multi-sport club from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, founded on April 4, 1909, and are one of the only five clubs to have never been relegated, along with Santos, São Paulo, Flamengo and Cruzeiro. They play in red shirts, white shorts and...
, but only appeared in a maximum of 14 top division
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes da Série A , popularly known as the Brasileirão , is a professional football league at the top of the Brazilian football league system held annually since 1959. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Série B...
games during his five-year spell, being however awarded the Silver Ball
Bola de Ouro
The Bola de Ouro is an award given each year, since 1973, by the authoritative Brazilian magazine Placar to the best player in the Brazilian National Championship. It is practically the equivalent to a Footballer of the Year award...
award for the 1988 season. In 1990, he moved abroad and joined Parma A.C.
Parma F.C.
Parma Football Club , commonly referred to as just Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia–Romagna that will compete in Serie A for the 2011–12 season, having finished in twelfth position last season. Founded as Verdi Foot Ball Club in July 1913, the club changed its...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, freshly promoted to Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
for the first time in the club's history; he proceeded to appear in all 34 league games in the following season as the Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
outfit overachieved for a final sixth position and qualified to the UEFA Cup.
In 1993 Taffarel, already only a backup at Parma, signed for fellow top-divisioner A.C. Reggiana 1919
A.C. Reggiana 1919
Associazione Calcio Reggiana 1919 is an Italian association football club, based in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1919 as A.C. Reggiana and refounded in July 2005 as Reggio Emilia F.C., but it was renamed A.C. Reggiana 1919 soon after the start of the 2005–06 season. The...
, being first-choice as the club narrowly avoided relegation. After that season, he returned to his country and played three seasons with Clube Atlético Mineiro
Clube Atlético Mineiro
Clube Atlético Mineiro , are a Brazilian football club based in Belo Horizonte, the oldest in the city. Founded in 1908, they play in the Campeonato Mineiro and Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Brasileirão. Atlético Mineiro have been Brazilian champions once, state winners a record 40 times and...
.
Aged 32, Taffarel returned to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and joined Galatasaray SK
Galatasaray S.K. (football team)
Galatasaray Anonim Şirketi is a Turkish football club, part of the Galatasaray S.K. multi-sport club of Istanbul. Galatasaray is a major sports club in Turkey, holding 17 Turkish Super League titles and the highest number of Turkish Cups....
, winning six major trophies during his three-year stint, most notably two Süper Lig and the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup, a 4–1 penalty shootout defeat of Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
(0–0 after 120 minutes); he closed out his career at the of 37 with former club Parma, after one 1/2 seasons as second-choice, and after having refused an offer from Empoli FC
Empoli F.C.
Empoli Football Club is an Italian association football club located in Empoli, Tuscany, founded in 1920 and played its first official match in 1921.In recent years, the club has all too often been bouncing between Italy's two top divisions...
: his car broke while he was going to sign the contract, and he defined such event as a "sign of God".
In 2004, Taffarel rejoined Galatasaray as goalkeeper coach (under former teammate Gheorghe Hagi
Gheorghe Hagi
Gheorghe Hagi is a former Romanian footballer. He was famous for his passing, close control, long shots and was regarded as one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s and is considered the greatest Romanian footballer of all time...
), returning to the club in the same predicament for the 2011–12 season
2011–12 Süper Lig
The 2011–12 Süper Lig is the 54th season of the Süper Lig, the highest football league of Turkey. Fenerbahçe are defending champions...
.
International career
Taffarel made his debut for BrazilBrazil national football team
The Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international men's football and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation , the governing body for football in Brazil. They are a member of the International Federation of Association Football since 1923 and also a member of the...
on 7 July 1988 in the Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup
Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup
The 1988 Australian Bicentennial Gold Cup was a one-off football tournament to celebrate the bincentennial of first settlement at Port Jackson by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788...
, playing all four games and conceding two goals in an eventual win. He was also in goal for the following year's Copa América
Copa América
The Copa América —previously known as South American Championship—is an international football competition contested between the men's national teams of CONMEBOL, the sport's continental governing body...
, in another international conquest (during his 10-year career, he appeared in five editions of the tournament).
Taffarel was the starter for Brazil during the 1994 FIFA World Cup
1994 FIFA World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in nine cities across the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, only allowing one goal in the first round and two in the knock-out phases (excluding two penalty kicks
Penalty kick
A penalty kick is a type of direct free kick in association football, taken from twelve yards out from goal and with only the goalkeeper of the defending team between the penalty taker and the goal.Penalty kicks are performed during normal play...
in the final). Four years later
1998 FIFA World Cup
The 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as host nation by FIFA on 2 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final...
, in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, he helped the national team finish second, notably saving two penalties in the 4–2 shootout win against the Netherlands
Netherlands national football team
The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands...
in the semifinals.
Taffarel gained 101 caps with the national team. Upon his retirement in 2003, coach Carlos Alberto Parreira
Carlos Alberto Parreira
Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira is a Brazilian former football manager. He managed Brazil to championships at the 1994 World Cup, the 2004 Copa América, and the 2005 Confederations Cup...
offered to arrange a farewell match but the player refused, stating that he was not interested in such fanfare. He did return to play alongside Romário
Romário
Romário de Souza Faria , better known simply as Romário , is a former footballer who played striker,manager and current politician where is currently running for a mayor like position in his hometown...
in late 2004 against Mexico
Mexico national football team
The Mexican national football team represents Mexico in association football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation , the governing body for football in Mexico. Mexico's home stadium is the Estadio Azteca and their head coach is José Manuel de la Torre...
to commemorate the 1994 World Cup victory at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team...
.
Club
|-|1985||rowspan="6"|Internacional
Sport Club Internacional
Sport Club Internacional is a Brazilian football team and multi-sport club from Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, founded on April 4, 1909, and are one of the only five clubs to have never been relegated, along with Santos, São Paulo, Flamengo and Cruzeiro. They play in red shirts, white shorts and...
||rowspan="6"|Série A
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes da Série A , popularly known as the Brasileirão , is a professional football league at the top of the Brazilian football league system held annually since 1959. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Série B...
||1||0||||||||||1||
|-
|1986||2||0||||||||||2||
|-
|1987||10||0||||||||||10||
|-
|1988||14||0||||||||||14||
|-
|1989||12||0||||||5||||17||
|-
|1990||11||0||||||||||11||
|-
|1990/91||rowspan="3"|Parma
Parma F.C.
Parma Football Club , commonly referred to as just Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia–Romagna that will compete in Serie A for the 2011–12 season, having finished in twelfth position last season. Founded as Verdi Foot Ball Club in July 1913, the club changed its...
||rowspan="3"|Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
||34||0||||||||||34||
|-
|1991/92||34||0||||||||||34||
|-
|1992/93||6||0|||1|||||||||7
|-
|1993/94||Reggiana
A.C. Reggiana 1919
Associazione Calcio Reggiana 1919 is an Italian association football club, based in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1919 as A.C. Reggiana and refounded in July 2005 as Reggio Emilia F.C., but it was renamed A.C. Reggiana 1919 soon after the start of the 2005–06 season. The...
||Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
||31||0||||||||||31||
|-
|1995||rowspan="4"|Atlético Mineiro
Clube Atlético Mineiro
Clube Atlético Mineiro , are a Brazilian football club based in Belo Horizonte, the oldest in the city. Founded in 1908, they play in the Campeonato Mineiro and Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Brasileirão. Atlético Mineiro have been Brazilian champions once, state winners a record 40 times and...
||rowspan="4"|Série A
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The Campeonato Brasileiro de Clubes da Série A , popularly known as the Brasileirão , is a professional football league at the top of the Brazilian football league system held annually since 1959. Contested by twenty clubs, it operates a system of promotion and relegation with the Série B...
||22||0||||||4||||26||
|-
|1996||27||0||||||||||27||
|-
|1997||24||0||||||4||||28||
|-
|1998||0||0||||||||||||
|-
|1998/99||rowspan="3"|Galatasaray
Galatasaray S.K. (football team)
Galatasaray Anonim Şirketi is a Turkish football club, part of the Galatasaray S.K. multi-sport club of Istanbul. Galatasaray is a major sports club in Turkey, holding 17 Turkish Super League titles and the highest number of Turkish Cups....
||rowspan="3"|Süper Lig||32||0||||||8||||40||
|-
|1999/00||30||0||||||17||||47||
|-
|2000/01||27||0||||||15||||42||
|-
|2001/02||rowspan="2"|Parma
Parma F.C.
Parma Football Club , commonly referred to as just Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia–Romagna that will compete in Serie A for the 2011–12 season, having finished in twelfth position last season. Founded as Verdi Foot Ball Club in July 1913, the club changed its...
||rowspan="2"|Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
||6||0||8||||1||||15||
|-
|2002/03||0||0||||||||||||
136||0||||||||||||
114||0||||||||||||
129||0||||||||||||
379||0||||||||||||
|}
International
|-|1988||7||0
|-
|1989||16||0
|-
|1990||7||0
|-
|1991||10||0
|-
|1992||2||0
|-
|1993||15||0
|-
|1994||9||0
|-
|1995||5||0
|-
|1996||0||0
|-
|1997||15||0
|-
|1998||15||0
|-
!Total||101||0
|}
Club
- ParmaParma F.C.Parma Football Club , commonly referred to as just Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia–Romagna that will compete in Serie A for the 2011–12 season, having finished in twelfth position last season. Founded as Verdi Foot Ball Club in July 1913, the club changed its...
:- Italian CupCoppa ItaliaThe Coppa Italia is an Italian football annual cup competition. Its first edition was held in 1922, but the second champions were not crowned until 1936. Roma and Juventus lead the way with nine wins. Roma has contested more finals, 16, while Torino and Juventus follow with 13...
: 1991–92, 2001–02 - UEFA Cup Winners' CupUEFA Cup Winners' CupThe UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a football club competition contested annually by the most recent winners of all European domestic cup competitions. The cup is one of the many inter-European club competitions that have been organised by UEFA. The first competition was held in the 1960–61 season—but...
: 1992–93
- Italian Cup
- GalatasarayGalatasaray S.K. (football team)Galatasaray Anonim Şirketi is a Turkish football club, part of the Galatasaray S.K. multi-sport club of Istanbul. Galatasaray is a major sports club in Turkey, holding 17 Turkish Super League titles and the highest number of Turkish Cups....
:- UEFA Cup: 1999–2000
- UEFA Super Cup: 20002000 UEFA Super CupThe 2000 UEFA Super Cup was a football match played on 25 August 2000 between Real Madrid of Spain and Galatasaray of Turkey. Real Madrid qualified by beating Valencia in the 2000 UEFA Champions League Final, while Galatasaray had made it to the Super Cup after beating Arsenal in the 2000 UEFA Cup...
- Turkish League: 1998–99, 1999–2000
- Turkish Cup: 1998–99, 1999–2000
- Atlético MineiroClube Atlético MineiroClube Atlético Mineiro , are a Brazilian football club based in Belo Horizonte, the oldest in the city. Founded in 1908, they play in the Campeonato Mineiro and Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Brasileirão. Atlético Mineiro have been Brazilian champions once, state winners a record 40 times and...
:- Minas Gerais State LeagueCampeonato MineiroCampeonato Mineiro is the state football league of the state of Minas Gerais and is controlled by the Minas Gerais Football Federation FMF ....
: 1995 - CONMEBOL Cup: 1997
- Minas Gerais State League
Country
- FIFA World CupFIFA World CupThe FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
: 19941994 FIFA World CupThe 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in nine cities across the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988...
; Runner-up 19981998 FIFA World CupThe 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as host nation by FIFA on 2 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final... - Copa AméricaCopa AméricaThe Copa América —previously known as South American Championship—is an international football competition contested between the men's national teams of CONMEBOL, the sport's continental governing body...
: 1989, 1997; Runner-up 1995 - Summer Olympic GamesSummer Olympic GamesThe Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that...
: Silver medalSilver medalA silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....
1988Football at the 1988 Summer OlympicsFinal results for the football competition at the 1988 Summer Olympics. The tournament was held from September 17, 1988 to October 1, 1988.-Medal summary:...
Individual
- IFFHS World's Best GoalkeeperIFFHS World's Best GoalkeeperThe IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper is a football award given annually since 1987 to the most outstanding goalkeeper as voted by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics . The votes, in 1996, were cast by IFFHS's editorial staff as well as experts from 89 countries spanning six...
: Bronze ball 1991, 1994 - Silver BallBola de OuroThe Bola de Ouro is an award given each year, since 1973, by the authoritative Brazilian magazine Placar to the best player in the Brazilian National Championship. It is practically the equivalent to a Footballer of the Year award...
: 1988
Post-retirement / Personal
Taffarel and his former Atlético Mineiro teammate Paulo RobertoPaulo Roberto
Paulo Roberto De Oliveira is a Brazilian football player, currently playing for Pattaya United in the Thailand Premier League.-External links:*...
started up a player agency, with the focus mainly on promising youngsters.
During the 1998 World Cup, when the Brazilian national team was training at Trois-Sapins stadium in Ozoir-la-Ferrière
Ozoir-la-Ferrière
Ozoir-la-Ferrière is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the metropolitan area of Paris east-southeast from the center....
, a suburb southeast of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the town's mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
proposed renaming the stadium after him.
Taffarel is a born-again Christian who has actively shared his faith in numerous venues. He has been a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes since 1988. He has 17 children, 15 of them adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
.