He was a member of the Italy squads that took part at the 1988 Summer Olympics, UEFA Euro 1988, and the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Following this, having already attracted the interest of Inter Milan, he had his first brief stint as a professional with Pro Patria[4] and Livorno before joining Sambenedettese.

[3] Despite his performances and success with Juventus, Tacconi was not able to find much space in the Italy national side under Azeglio Vicini, due to the presence of several other excellent keepers, such as Giovanni Galli initially, and Walter Zenga – his perceived career rival –[3][6][7][8][9] in particular, as well as the emerging keeper Gianluca Pagliuca, subsequently.

He played his final match for Italy on 13 February 1991, keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 friendly home draw with Belgium, in Terni.

[15] Although he had a deep goal kick,[16] he was not particularly gifted with his feet, and struggled to adapt his game following the introduction of the back-pass rule, and was even critical of the new regulations.

In 2005, he controversially tried to stand for president of Lombardy as a candidate for New Italian Social Movement, an extreme right-wing party, but could not garner enough votes to validate his candidacy.

In 2006, he put in for a city councilman position in Milan again within Alleanza Nazionale, supporting winner Letizia Moratti for mayor, but gained only 57 personal preferences (votes) and was not elected to the office.