Torino F.C.

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Torino
Full name	Torino Football Club 1906 SpA
Nickname(s)	I Granata (The Maroons), Il Toro (The Bull)
Founded	1906 (AC Torino) 2005 (Torino FC)
Ground	Stadio Olimpico (Capacity 25,300)
Chairman	Urbano Cairo
Head Coach	Gianni De Biasi
League	Serie A
2007-08	Serie A, 15th
Home colours 　 Away colours

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.^[1]

The club was known as Associazione Calcio Torino until 1970, and as Torino Calcio from 1970 to 2005.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Italian Football Championship 2 Il Grande Torino 3 Grande Torino records 4 The Superga tragedy 5 Players 6 Managerial history 7 Honours 7.1 National 7.2 International 7.3 Youth 8 Notable players 9 References 10 External links

[edit] 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.^[2] As well as Alfredo Dick, other prominent founders included the Swiss businessman Hans Schoenbrod (first chairman), and Vittorio Pozzo (later manager of Italy).^[3]

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.^[4] The fact that Torino's split from Juve was not amicable, saw the rise of a heated local known as the Derby della Mole.^[5]

[edit] 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.^[6] In 1909 it was succeeded by the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, in which a Torino XI comprised of Juve and Torino players participated but did not make it to the final.^[7]

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).
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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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)

[edit] The Superga tragedy

Main article: Superga air disaster

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.^[8]

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.

[edit] Players

As of 2008-01-02^[9]

No. Position Player 1 GK Matteo Sereni 2 DF Gianluca Comotto 3 DF Marco Pisano (on loan from Palermo) 4 FW Álvaro Recoba (on loan from Inter) 5 MF Eugenio Corini 7 DF Marco Motta 8 MF Simone Barone 9 FW Nicola Ventola 10 MF Alessandro Rosina (Captain) 11 MF Nikola Lazetić 13 MF Vincenzo Grella 14 DF Cesare Natali 15 DF Hernán Paolo Dellafiore (on loan from Palermo) 16 FW Masashi Oguro

No. Position Player 17 FW David Di Michele 19 MF Aimo Diana 20 FW Saša Bjelanović 21 DF Ivan Franceschini 22 DF Marco Di Loreto 23 DF Salvatore Lanna 27 MF Paolo Zanetti 29 MF Davide Bottone 31 GK Alberto Maria Fontana 33 MF Matteo Rubin 77 FW Roberto Stellone 89 GK Lys Gomis 92 FW Dominic Malonga

For all transfers and loans pertaining to Torino for the current season, please see; 2007–08 transfers.

[edit] Managerial history

Torino have had many managers and trainers, some seasons they have had co-managers running the team, here is a chronological list of them from 1912 onwards.^[10]