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Torino Football Club is one of the most popular Italian football clubs, based in Turin. Torino are nicknamed 'I Granata' (the Maroons) from the color of the team shirts, or 'Il Toro' (the Bull), an abbreviation of the team name which refers to both the Toro Rampante (Prancing Bull), the emblem of the city of Turin and a distinctive feature of the team's iconography since its inception, and to the city name of Turin in Italian language. The club was known as A.C. Torino until 1970, and as Torino Calcio from 1970 to 2005.

History

Football Club Torino was founded on December 3 1906 in the Voigt brewery by some Juventus dissidents seeking independence. Among the founders were Alfredo Dick (from Juventus), the Swiss businessman Hans Schoenbrod (first chairman), and Vittorio Pozzo (later manager of the national team). The new club attracted members from all city's other teams and absorbed older local clubs such as Internazionale Torino (founded in 1890) and Unione Sportiva Torinese.

After the early years, Torino were denied their first championship attempt by the outbreak of World War I, and their first title was revoked in 1926/27 due to an irregularity in the match against Juventus. Torino won its first Scudetto, the Italian Serie A league Championship, the following 1927/28 season and, between 1942/43 and 1948/49, the "Grande Torino" (Great Torino), widely considered the best ever team in Italian football history, won five other straight scudetti, led by its captain, Valentino Mazzola.

On May 4, 1949, all but one player (who was out for an injury) of Grande Torino were killed when their plane crashed into the hills of Superga, on the outskirts of Turin. The club never recovered, and after a decade of mediocre seasons, they were relegated to Serie B in 1958/59, although they returned to Serie A the following season.

By the early 1960s and until the late 1980s, Torino had good results in Serie A, including another Scudetto in the 1975/76 season. Since the end of the 1980s, the club went up and down between Serie A and Serie B, the top two divisions with little success, except a Coppa Italia in 1992/93 and a Mitropa Cup win in 1990/91. Among the best results ever achieved in the club's history, it reached the UEFA Cup Final in 1991/92 only to lose it in two aggregate matches to Ajax Amsterdam without being defeated.

In 2004/05, Torino finished 3rd in Serie B and, after winning the playoffs, was promoted back in Serie A. However, the FIGC, the governing body of Italian football, expelled both Torino Calcio and F.C. Messina from Serie A, due to both clubs' financial problems. However, while Messina was re-admitted by a civil court of appeal, Torino was not and it was cancelled from the Italian sport panorama.

Thanks to the 'Lodo Petrucci' (Italian law which allows a sport club that is the direct heir of a cancelled one to be re-admitted one division below the previous one), a new club was founded under the current name Torino F.C. and was admitted to play the next season, again in Serie B. Bought by entrepreneur Urbano Cairo, Torino FC ended its 2005/2006 Serie B campaign in third place, being therefore qualified for the promotion play-offs. Torino subsequently defeated Mantova in the final to earn promotion to Serie A.

Even in its worst seasons, Torino has often achieved good results in epic matches (the so-called "derbies") against the other Turin team, Juventus. Since 1990 the club has played in the 69,040 capacity Stadio Delle Alpi, shared with Juventus. Prior to 1990 the clubs shared the Stadio Comunale for thirty years, Torino moving there from the glorious Stadio Filadelfia, home of Grande Torino. Starting with the 2006/07 season Torino will move into a new, smaller ground of its own, the Stadio Grande Torino (which is the renewed former stadio comunale).

Il Grande Torino

Grande Torino ("The Great Torino") is the name by which the Torino F.C. team of the 1940s is populalry known in Italy. Torino F.C. set many important records of Italian football, all of which still stand today.

Grande Torino played with the 4-4-2 10 years before the Brazil 1958 World Cup team, and some of their game tactics anticipated by 35 years the Dutch Total Football that revolutionized the game in the 1970s.

The starting lineup of Grande Torino included Valerio Bacigalupo, Aldo Ballarin, Virgilio Maroso, Pino Grezar, Mario Rigamonti, Eusebio Castigliano, Romeo Menti, Ezio Loik, Guglielmo Gabetto, Valentino Mazzola, and Franco Ossola.

The Italy national football team starting lineup in the second half of the forties consisted almost entirely of Grande Torino players, which regularly contribuited with 8-9 starters. On May 11, 1947, for the friendly match between Italy and Hungary 3-2, the Azzurri starting lineup was made of 10 Grande Torino players plus the Juventus goalkeeper Sentimenti IV. Italian manager Vittorio Pozzo reserved the Azzurri starting keeper Valerio Bacigalupo; otherwise it would have been the whole Grande Torino team playing for Italy.

Legendary captain Valentino Mazzola was also the captain of the Italy national football team as well as the father of Sandro Mazzola, who was also a great champion playing for Internazionale Milano and Italy in the 1960s-70s. Valentino was an all-around playmaker midfielder who could direct the team, pass, score, tackle, defend, inspire and lead his teammates.

Grande Torino Records

  • Most consecutive Italian Serie A league titles: 5 straight championships from 1943 to 1949 (1942/43, 1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49, in 1944 and 1945 no league matches were played because of World War II), which ties Juventus record of 5 straight Serie A league titles of 1930/31, 1931/32, 1932/33, 1933/34 and 1934/35

  • Most consecutive seasons undefeated at home: 4 straight seasons (1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49)

  • Most consecutive league matches undefeated at home: 93 straight matches, with 83 wins and 10 draws (from January 24, 1943 to April 30, 1949)

  • Most points in one season (before the 3 points per win rules): 65 points (1947/48)

  • Biggest ever advantage on the English average: 6 points above (1946/47)

  • Greatest ever home win: 10-0 to Alessandria (1947/48)

  • Greatest ever away win: 0-7 to AS Roma (1945/46 Serie A Finals)

  • Most wins in one season (16 teams league): 20 wins in 30 matches (1942/43)

  • Most wins in one season (20-21 teams league): 28 wins in 38 matches (1946/47) and 29 wins in 40 matches (1947/48)

  • Most home wins in one season: 19 wins on 20 matches (1947/48)

  • Most away wins in one season (16 teams league): 10 wins in 15 matches (1942/43)

  • Most away wins in one season (20-21 teams league): 13 wins in 19 matches (1946/47)

  • Most home points in one season: 39 points on 40 available (1947/48)

  • Most away points in one season (16 teams league): 22 points on 30 available (1942/43)

  • Fewest home points lost in one season: 1 point on 40 available (1947/48 and 1948/49)

  • Fewest defeats in one season: 3 defeats on 38 matches (1946/47 and 1948/49)

  • Fewest away defeats in one season: 3 defeats on 19 matches (1946/47 and 1948/49)

  • Most goals scored in one season: 125 goals (1947/48)

  • Most home goals scored in one season: 89 goals (1947/48)

  • Most away goals scored in one season (16 teams league): 31 goals (1942/43)

  • Most away goals scored in one season (20-21 teams league): 36 goals (1946/47 and 1947/48)

  • Most goals scored in the 5 championship seasons: 408 goals scored (1942/43, 1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49)

  • Fewest goals suffered in one season (21 teams league): 33 goals (1947/48)

  • Fewest away goals suffered in one season (16 teams league): 9 goals (1942/43)

  • Best ever percentage of goals scored in one season: 3.787 goals per match (1947/48)

  • More points in the second half of the season: 34 points on 38 available (1946/47) and 36 points on 40 available (1947/48)

The Superga tragedy

On May 4, 1949, after having secured their record fifth back-to-back Serie A title, and on their way home after a friendly match with Benfica in Lisbon, Portugal, the airplane carrying Grande Torino crashed against the Cathedral of Superga, on a hill near Turin, killing all the players and managers.

Grande Torino is still much loved by Italian football fans as a symbol of national pride that helped Italian people get through the hardships of post World War II.

Notable players

This is a list of some of the best players that over the decades honored the Granata shirt. It must be noted that several of these players came out from the Torino youth team, one of the oldest and strongest of Italy, who won several youth Italian championships.

Early times

The Grande Torino

Up to the 1980s

1990s to present

Current first team squad

As of 2006

Achievements

Youth team Archievements

External links

Italian football clubs | Turin | 1906 establishments

Torino Football Club | Torino Calcio 1906 | AC Turin | Torino Football Club | Torino Football Club | Torino Football Club | Torino FC | トリノ・カルチョ | Torino FC | Torino FC | Torino Football Club | Torino FC | 都灵足球俱乐部

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Torino F.C.".

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