Last update 26 March, 2024 by Alberto Llopis
There are teams that go down in history for their football, winners and legendary players. And certainly the 'Grande Torino‘ It is one of them. For what he did on the field and for that tragic end with the 'Superga tragedy’ a fateful 4 May 1949.
He Torino F.C, located in Turin where it shares space with a giant like Juve, It has the not inconsiderable figure of 7 Series A and Serie A titles 5 Italian cups, besides being runner-up of the former UEFA Cup this season 91-92. He was born as such 3 from December to 1906 in Turin, although in 1894 He had already existed Football Club Torinese, which he disappeared shortly after. He went to the denomination of Torino Calcio. Due to economic problems, which claimed its descent and formal disappearance as such, he 9 of August of 2005, It was refounded and re-registered with the Italian Football Federation and Torino Football Club.
Grande Torino that he stayed in the Superga 4 May 1949
But if we speak of Torino and its history, We can not ignore what happened 4 May 1949, when the team known as “Great Turin” for their 5 championships in the decade of the 40 and for their good work in the field, He suffered the hardest blow to his already more than centennial history, in known as “Superga air disaster“.
Turin, He returned to play a friendly match against Benfica in Lisbon, when in mount Superga, a 10 km outside Turin, the plane carrying the team crashed mythical. They killed all passengers, 31 in total. He “Gran Turin” He had disappeared all of a sudden.
The commotion that was created not only in Turin, but throughout Italy it was tremendous, given that 10 of the 18 deceased players, were also part of the Azzurri squad and the Italian coach had to travel to the accident site to recognize one to one. Such was the impact, that the Italian team had to redo to go to Brazil World Cup 1950 and also They traveled on an ocean liner to Brazil, to fear that the tragedy, even recent, You could repeat.
As the chronicles of the time say “only fate could with them“. At that moment, They marched leaders of Serie A and despite being four days were granted the title of champions. Even so, he Tour I wanted to play the 4 days remaining. He did the youth.
Meroni Teeth, a different genius who also had a tragic end as foreign
But fatalities do not end there. In the decade of the 60, the team returns to fight for ambitious levels with figures of her time as Meroni teeth. Known as the “Best Italian“, It was a peculiar kind. long hair was left, He was a painter, poet and able to walk with a pet hen which. He was definitely a genius on and off the field. Being the Torino of concentration, Gigi asked permission to coach the club to go out to eat ice cream, with the bad luck that was run over by a young man named Attilio Romero, it was his staunch follower.
Attilio fell into a depression and thirty years later, He became the president of Toro and try to fix the damage he had done three decades earlier, cutting progression Torino best player at that time. To complete the fatal coincidences, the pilot who crashed plane “Great Turin” years before, It was also called Meroni Teeth.
In the decade of 70 he Tour crowned champions again, specifically in the season 75-76, fair 27 years after the Superga tragedy. Fans bull, they celebrated at the crash site with torches on the fateful accident Hill, and paying tribute to the fallen heroes.
The glorious years and the decline
in the season 84-85 proclaimed runner and at the end of the decade of the 80, specifically in 1989 fell into ostracism from series B. Already in the 90 They returned to the series A, fichando big players like the then Real Madrid and the Spanish national team Rafael Martin Vazquez.
This move gave much to write at the time, since by the 90, It was not very often that a player in our league pierce the borders to play in other leagues. in the season 91-92 UEFA runners-proclaimed eliminating Real Madrid.
He was given the fatal accident, once again in the history of Torino, you see that tie back, He died in a traffic accident mythical “Juanita”. Even indirectly Tour It was mixed in a fatality. One season later, in the 92-93, Torino won the Italian Cup, Cup fifth and final official title, till the date. Since then he was staggered because of their poor administration between the series A and B.