Everything about Torino Calcio totally explained
Urbano Cairo |
mgrtitle = Head Coach |
manager =
Gianni De Biasi |
league =
Serie A |
season =
2007-08 |
position = Serie A, 15th |
pattern_la1=|pattern_b1=|pattern_ra1=|
leftarm1=8B0000|body1=8B0000|rightarm1=8B0000|shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=000000|
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=|
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=ffffff|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=8B0000|socks2=FFFFFF|
}}
Torino Football Club, commonly referred to as simply
Torino, is an
Italian professional
football club based in
Turin,
Piedmont that was founded in 1906. The club has spent most of their history in the top tier in
Italian football, where they currently play for the
2007–08 season.
Torino, who play in
maroon shirts with white shorts have won
Serie A seven times, first in
1927–28 and most recently in
1975–76. They have also won
Coppa Italia in their home country five times. On the European stage, the nearest Torino have come to success is finishing runners-up in the
UEFA Cup, this was achieved in
1991–92. Historically, Torino are the fourth most successful club in
Italian football.
The club was known as
Associazione Calcio Torino until
1970, and as
Torino Calcio from 1970 to
2005.
History
Foot-Ball Club Torino was founded on
3 December 1906 after a meeting at the Voigt brewery in
Via Pietro Micca near the center of Turin. Its foundation involved some
Juventus dissidents led by
Alfredo Dick, who had left the
bianconeri after some at the club wanted to move Juventus out of Turin. As well as Alfredo Dick, other prominent founders included the
Swiss businessman Hans Schoenbrod (first chairman), and
Vittorio Pozzo (later manager of
Italy).
The first ground for FBC Torino would be
Velodromo Umberto I in the La Crocetta neighbourhood, for which Dick owned the lease. Torino lured some players from other clubs, including
FBC Torinese who became defunct as a result. The fact that Torino's split from Juve wasn't amicable, saw the rise of a heated local known as the
Derby della Mole.
Italian Football Championship
Torino F.C. took part in the world's first international tournament,
Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva 1908 which was hosted in
Turin itself organised by the Italian magazine
La Stampa Sportiva. Torino lost in the final 3-1 to Swiss side
Servette. In 1909 it was succeeded by the
Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, in which a Torino XI comprised of
Juve and Torino players participated but didn't make it to the final.
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 wasn't and it was cancelled from the Italian sport panorama.
Thanks to the 'Lodo Petrucci' (Italian law which allows a sport club that's 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).
Actually the
Stadio delle Alpi (that is of
Juventus Turin propriety) is closed for a future rebuilt: after that maybe Torino will still use it for a number of high profile matches. When playing at home Torino wears a maroon top and white shorts (sometimes is full maroon) but when playing else where the team wears all white. When practicing Torino wears red and white or red and black.
Il Grande Torino
Grande Torino ("The Great Torino") is the name by which the legendary
Torino F.C. team of the 1940s is popularly known in
Italy. Grande Torino 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 all-star starting lineup of Grande Torino that died at Superga is the most famous in
Italian football history as every Italian fan knows it:
Valerio Bacigalupo,
Aldo Ballarin,
Virgilio Maroso,
Pino Grezar,
Mario Rigamonti,
Eusebio Castigliano,
Romeo Menti,
Ezio Loik,
Guglielmo Gabetto,
Valentino Mazzola, and
Franco Ossola; the son of Ossola is now the major biographer of the Club's history.
The
Italy national football team starting lineup in the second half of the forties consisted almost entirely of Grande Torino players, which regularly contributed 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) and just two visiting teams that didn't allow any goal.
- 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 (21 teams league): 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 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 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 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: 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
Basilica of Superga, on a hill near
Turin, killing nearly 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.
Players
As of 2008-01-02
For all transfers and loans pertaining to Torino for the current season, please see; 2007–08 transfers.
Managerial history
Torino have had many managers and trainers, some seasons they've had co-managers running the team, here's a chronological list of them from 1912 onwards.
Honours
National
Serie A » *Champions (7): 1927-1928, 1942-43, 1945-46, 1946-47, 1947-48, 1948-49, 1975-76
*Runners-up (5): 1928-1929, 1938-1939, 1941-1942, 1976-1977, 1984-1985
Coppa Italia » *Champions (5): 1935-36, 1942-43, 1967-68, 1970-71, 1992-93
*Runners-up (9): 1937-38, 1962-63, 1963-64, 1968-69, 1969-70, 1979-80, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1987-88
Serie B » *Champions (3): 1959-60, 1989-90, 2000-01
*Seria A Playoffs (2): 2004-05; 2005-06
Italian Super Cup » *Runners-up (1): 1993-1994
International
UEFA Cup » *Runners-up (1): 1991-92
Mitropa Cup » *Winners (1): 1990-91
Memorial Pier Cesare Baretti » *Winners (1): 1990
*Runners-up (1): 1993
Youth
Italian Youth Championship
1966/67 - 1967/68 - 1969/70 - 1976/77 - 1984/85 - 1987/88 - 1990/91 - 1991/92
Italian Youth Cup
1982/83, 1983/84, 1985/86, 1987/88, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1998/99
Viareggio International youth Tournament
1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1995, 1998
Notable players
Enrico Annoni
Antonino Asta
Valerio Bacigalupo
Dino Baggio
Aldo Ballarin
Dino Ballarin
Adolfo Baloncieri
Enzo Bearzot
Giorgio Bresciani
Pasquale Bruno
Luca Bucci
Luciano Castellini
Angelo Cereser
Sandro Cois
Roberto Cravero
Giuseppe Dossena
Rubens Fadini
Marco Ferrante
Giorgio Ferrini
Natalino Fossati
Diego Fuser
Gugliemo Gabetto
Fabio Galante
Francesco Graziani
Giuseppe Grezar
Gianluigi Lentini
Ezio Loik
Cristiano Lucarelli
Luca Marchegiani
Virgilio Maroso
Danilo Martelli
Valentino Mazzola
Romeo Menti
Gigi Meroni
Roberto Mozzini
Roberto Mussi
Franco Ossola
Eraldo Pecci
Gianluca Pessotto
Silvio Piola
Paolino Pulici
Mario Rigamonti
Ruggiero Rizzitelli
Roberto Rosato
Claudio Sala
Patrizio Sala
Andrea Silenzi
Giuliano Terraneo
Lido Vieri
Renato Zaccarelli
Patricio Hernández
Julio Libonatti
Toni Polster
Walter Schachner
Vincenzo Scifo
Johan Walem
Fernando
Júnior
Walter Casagrande
Müller
Pinga
Robert Jarni
Krunoslav Jurčić
Gerry Hitchens
Jocelyn Angloma
Benoît Cauet
Abédi Pelé
Faas Wilkes
Dionisio Arce
Denis Law
Nikola Lazetić
Joaquín Peiró
Martín Vázquez
Hasse Jeppson
Hakan Şükür
Álvaro Recoba
Carlos Aguilera
Enzo Francescoli
Gustavo Méndez
Haris Skoro
Iosif Fabian
Further Information
Get more info on 'Torino Calcio'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://torino_f_c.totallyexplained.com">Torino F.C. Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
