Born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, Taffarel began his career playing for Internacional but only appeared in 14 Série A games during his five-year spell, being however awarded the Golden Ball award for the 1988 season. In 1990, he moved abroad and joined Parma in Italy, a club which had been freshly promoted to Serie A for the first time in its history; according to a 2003 article by Andrea Schianchi of "La Gazzetta dello Sport", Taffarel's move to Parma was also carried out for commercial reasons, as at the time, Calisto Tanzi, the then–owner of Parmalat – the company that owned the club –, was looking to have the Brazilian goalkeeper become the face of the corporation's new advertising campaign following its recent expansion into Brazil. Taffarel became the first non–Italian goalkeeper to play in Serie A, and proceeded to appear in all 34 league games in the following campaign under manager Nevio Scala, as the Emilia-Romagna side finished in sixth position and qualified to the UEFA Cup. He won the Coppa Italia in 1992 and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1993 during his first spell with the club, although following a series of unconvincing performances, and the regulations at the time that only allowed three non–Italian players in the team's starting XI (with Faustino Asprilla, Tomas Brolin, and Georges Grün usually being selected to start by Scala), he was relegated to the bench over the course of the next two seasons, initially behind Marco Ballotta and later Luca Bucci.