Six years. Zero games. Two red cards. The life of Inter's sub GK 🤣 | OneFootball

Being a reserve goalkeeper is the dream job.

You have all the perks of being a professional footballer without ever actually having to play. Or not often anyway.

But even while playing time is hard to come by, some still manage to hit the headlines.

That is the case for Inter’s third-choice goalkeeper Tommaso Berni.

We’ll forgive you if you haven’t heard of the 37-year-old and are wondering why his name doesn’t ring a bell for the Nerazzurri.

Despite being at the club for six years, he has never actually played a single game for the Nerazzurri.

In fact, he hasn’t been a regular starter anywhere since 2006 when he was with Ternana in Serie B and it is an incredible eight years since he last appeared on the field.

Since then, he has represented both Torino and Inter without ever featuring and yet he’s still making the news.

That’s because he was shown a red card during their dramatic late win at Parma on Sunday night for his protests from the bench.

Incredibly, it is the second time this season he has been ‘sent off’ for his behaviour on the bench, having also been dismissed against Cagliari in January.

Back-up ‘keeper Daniele Padelli isn’t immune either and he was also shown a red card from the bench during the loss at Juventus, meaning half of Inter’s red cards this season have came from players who weren’t on the field!

Berni isn’t unique in this circumstance though as fellow goalkeeper Federico Marchetti has twice been sent off as a substitute in a single season, although the veteran still has time on his side to set the record.

In the past 14 years he has played just 33 times and has become almost something of a joke figure but don’t poke too much fun at him.

When he played, a long time ago as it may have been, he was actually good at his job.

Serie A fans will be aware that Inter’s number one Samir Handanović has a reputation for being the league’s penalty-saving king.

But do you know that statistically speaking, Berni is just as good, despite playing over 300 games fewer.

Per Sky Sport Italia, in the Slovenian’s career, he has faced 109 penalties and saved 39 for a 35% average. Berni has faced 17 and kept out six of them – also for a 35% average.

Maybe he should be given a chance soon then?