Despite a recent stay in Serie B, extended by financial problems that denied them promotion in the summer of 2005, the Granata are amongst Italy’s most celebrated clubs.
Founded in 1906 it took them a little over a couple of decades to grab the first of no fewer than seven League crowns. The next one came in 1943 and it heralded the opening of an era of unprecedented success for the Turin side. They won five Scudetti on the trot to match the performance of city rivals Juventus back in the 1930s.
The ‘Grande Torino’ side ran riot, rarely scoring less than 100 goals a season and containing most of the great players of the era including Valentino Mazzola, Ezio Loik, Romeo Menti and Mario Rigamonti. But on May 4, 1949, disaster struck as the team was on its way back from a friendly in Lisbon. Their plane crashed into the hills above Turin at Superga and everyone on board was killed. There were still four games left to play in the season but, after a 0-0 draw with closest rivals Inter, the Italian Federation awarded them their fifth Scudetto in a row and let them conclude the season with their youth team.
It took over a quarter of a century for the championship to return to Torino and it was an emotionally charged moment when they secured that title once more in 1976. Since then the club has known a dip in fortunes and bobbed up and down between Serie A and B, although they did memorably reach the UEFA Cup Final in 1992 only to lose out to Ajax.
Their latest promotion in 2006 came in dramatic fashion with a thrilling 5-5 aggregate scoreline in the play-off Final giving them victory over Mantova as a result of a higher League finish. |
