Grande Torino
The origins of “Il Grande Torino”
The story of Grande Torino begins in 1939, with Ferruccio Novo becoming the president of Foot-Ball Club Torino. At the time, the club was not even the second biggest club in the region of Piedmont; Pro Vercelli and Juventus were arguably the two most historically successful clubs in Italy at the time, let alone in the region of Piedmont. Torino may have worn the name of the region’s capital, however the club had won just one Italian league title, something which even fellow Piedmontese clubs Casale and Novese had achieved. With Ferruccio Novo as club president, this was set to change. Ferruccio was not a president who saw big spending as the key to running a successful football club, or, rather, he realized that it wasn’t possible to compete with the Agnelli-backed Juventus in that regard. Given the financial disadvantage Torino were at, Novo instead aimed to bridge the gap with superior sporting strategy. As a former player, Novo had a good understanding of football, and saw the English game and its tactical aspects as a big inspiration. Furthermore, Novo’s revolution saw an overhaul of the Torino’s staff, as he was able to assign the right roles to the right people, which played a big role in planting the seeds for the team which was later set to flourish. It was a new era for Torino, and the future was bright.
The first notable signing of this era would be Franco Ossola, an 18-year old from Serie C side Varese; naturally quite a cheap signing at that time, thereby largely aligning with the new sporting direction of the club. Ossola would make just four appearances in his debut season, but in his second season he scored 15 goals in 22 appearances, and with the success of this signing, maybe Novo knew what he was doing? Well, in the meanwhile Torino still weren’t much of an immediate threat at the time. Despite Ossola’s breakout season in 1940–41, Torino were a rather average team that season, finishing seventh out of 16 teams, with a goal difference of just +4. Still, Novo was not merely naively ambitious, but very intelligent and skilled at what he did. As Italy had entered WWII, Novo anticipated the subsequent financial stagnation of Italian football, which he used to his advantage by signing the likes of Pietro Ferraris (29), Romeo Menti (22), Alfredo Bodoira (30), Felice Borel (27) and Guglielmo Gabetto (25), all of which were highly established, talented players, and the latter two of which were already Juventus legends. Despite how long ago this was, and how different the footballing climate was, we see some pretty clear parallels to the modern day here. First of all, there’s the ambitious sporting revolution and subsequent investment in cheap, young players, which did indeed exist even in the 1940’s, and although these sporting projects are often dismissed as naive and gimmicky, there are always exceptions, in fact there have always been; even in the 1940’s Ferruccio Novo was a lot more pragmatic and intelligent than a lot of football executives today. It was clear that Novo’s strategy didn’t merely center around signing young players for cheap.
As for how the aforementioned signings turned out, Felice Borel was the most prestigious one, and, well, he ended up being mediocre on the pitch and would return to Juventus after just one season at Torino. However, before then he was able to play a crucial role in the foundation of Grande Torino, at least by some accounts. These accounts claim that Borel was one of a few at the club who suggested to Ferruccio Novo that Torino should take inspiration from the great Herbert Chapman, whose hyper-offensive “Sistema” setup was in stark contrast to the rigid, defensive “Metodo” setup most commonly found in Italy at the time. This could be seen as the turning point for Novo’s Torino.
Sistema, raid of Venezia & the first scudetto
With Ferruccio Novo’s arrival; the subsequent reconstruction of the club; the additions of Franco Ossola, Pietro Ferraris, Romeo Menti, Alfredo Bodoira, Felice Borel and Guglielmo Gabetto; the tactical transition to “Sistema”, a large part of the foundation of Grande Torino had already been established going into the 1942–43 season. Even the season prior, Torino had fallen just three points short of eventual scudetto winners Roma, but with early success of a tactical change that could go on to revolutionize Italian football, and with new signings set to be made, material success seemed inevitable. Many factors played a key role in Torino’s eventual success—the sporting revolution of Ferruccio Novo is one of them, but the tactical revolution in 1941 might have been just about as important. Arrigo Sacchi is often lauded for revolutionizing Italian football in the 1980’s, by moving away from hegemonic style of Catenaccio, which had ruled Italian football for decades at the time… but while Nereo Rocco was the pioneer of Catenaccio in the 1950’s, highly defensive football had ruled Italian football long before then, and what Torino achieved with Sistema would foreshadow Sacchi’s revolution at Milan. As implied, the predecessor to Catenaccio was Metodo, which was most notably utilized by Azzurri head coach Vittorio Pozzo, who led Italy to back-to-back World Cup victories in 1934 and 1938 respectively. As you would expect, it was a tactical strategy that was defined by defensive solidity and prolific counter-attacking play. Torino, on the other hand, wanted to challenge the tactical hegemony in Italian football at the time. As mentioned, they would do this by taking inspiration from Herbert Chapman’s “Sistema”, or rather “W-M” system, the latter name of which refers to the shape of the formation: a “W” and a “M”. The setup has regained prominence in modern times, most notably through Pep Guardiola, and if it can work in 2024, you can only imagine how effective it was in the 1940’s. The result was that Torino scored a lot of goals, but in reality the real reason the setup was so successful was that it was more defensively solid, balanced and dynamic compared to Metodo. Similarly, if we use Pep Guardiola as a modern reference point, his teams may be known for dominating possession and scoring goals, whereas José Mourinho was often seen as somewhat of a tactical opposite to Mourinho, with his “defensive” mindset. However, the reason why Pep Guardiola’s teams have been so good tactically is not merely because they’re proficient in the final third, but also because they don’t just rely on one form of attack, and because they’re extremely solid defensively.
So, going into the 1942–43 season, Torino were no longer a quiet, humble team with big dreams, but rather the favorites to win the scudetto. They were a team on the rise, and had nearly won the scudetto even the season prior. In fact, the club had prepared for 1942–43 before the 1941–42 season was even over. In matchday 28/30 of 1941–42, Torino would lose 3–1 to Venezia, which essentially killed their hopes of winning the scudetto that season; had they won this match as well as the final match of the season against Fiorentina, they would have finished one point of eventual scudetto winners Roma. This fateful day in the city of Venice, two players stood out to Ferruccio Novo as he watched on. The first was Ezio Loik, a tricky, 22-year old winger who had recently earned a callup to Vittorio Pozzo’s national team. The latter would go on to become Torino’s greatest player ever: Valentino Mazzola, who was 23 years old at the time. After the match against Venezia, Novo did not immediately leave with an overwhelming sense of disappointment. Instead, he couldn’t get over what he had just seen from Loik and Mazzola, so he bluntly went into Venezia’s locker room, and was able to conclude a deal which would bring the duo to Torino for the upcoming season. Different times.
Torino’s team was now complete, and ready to storm towards a scudetto in 1942–43, but the season didn’t start off as they had anticipated. With all their ambitions and sudden changes in previous years, Torino were experiencing severe growing pains. They lost the first two matches of the Serie A season, the latter of which was against Tuscan side Livorno, which had just barely avoided relegation the previous season. As it just so happened, this Livorno side would come awfully close to winning what would’ve been their only ever major trophy. On April 25, 1943, Torino had the chance to clinch their first scudetto of the Ferruccio Novo-era in Bari, and in the 86th minute Valentino Mazzola fired in his 11th goal of the Serie A season. Torino were champions of Italy for the first time in 15 years. On top of that, they would hoist the Coppa Italia about a month later, demolishing the same Venezia that had effectively ended their season a year prior, in the final. With all the progress Torino had made in the previous years, this triumphant end to the 1942–43 season could have been the start of something special, but there was still a war going on, and Torino were unable to build on their success as the next two Serie A seasons were effectively canceled.
“Il Grande Torino”
With the 1945–46 season, Serie A would officially return, and so would Torino; now with the scudetto on their chests. With over two years having passed since the previous season, more changes would be made for Torino and they would truly become great. The 1945–96 season would be somewhat of a parentheses to the history of Serie A, as clubs were still recovering from the implications of WWII, while the list of participating teams of the Serie A was also restricted to the geographical north of Italy. Nonetheless, Torino picked up right where they left off, as they dominated the rest of league on their way to another Scudetto—the third of their history. This was only the beginning, however.
The 1946–47 season was when Torino would truly reveal their greatness to the world. In beautiful homage to Herbert Chapman and his ideas, Torino were unlike any team Italy had ever seen before, and unlike any team Italy has seen since then. Still a historic season to this day, Torino scored 104 goals on their way to their third consecutive scudetto in 1946–47. The following season, Torino would somehow look even better, improving to 125 goals that season, winning the Scudetto once more; a fourth consecutive time. However, as implied earlier, their tactical setup didn’t stand out for being overly aggressive and offensive-minded, which was reflected by the fact that they didn’t merely score 125 goals, but also conceded fewer goals than any other team in the Serie A that year. Ferruccio Novo’s Torino were gaining a legendary status going into the 1948–49 season, and while this season would be significantly more turbulent than previous seasons, Torino looked set for a fifth consecutive Scudetto towards the end of the campaign.
While Valentino Mazzola stood out especially during these years, as he was arguably the greatest player in the world of his era, the team was full of stars all over. In fact, the players of Grande Torino were so good that they made up a large part of the Italian national team; once making up 10/11 players in the starting lineup in a match against Hungary. With the first World Cup since 1938 (the year before Ferruccio Novo became club president) coming up in 1950, so did an opportunity for Torino to further write themselves into the history books—this time on the international stage. However, first they had to clinch the 1949 Scudetto, and aim to win a sixth consecutive scudetto in the 1949–50 season.
The Superga Air Disaster
On 4 May, 1949, Torino were set to fly back home to Turin from Lisbon. Four matches of the 1948–49 Serie A season remained, and no European competitions had been established at the time, so what were they doing in the capital of Portugal at the time? Well, Torino were not just seen as by far the best team in Italy, but were also beginning to establish themselves as one of the greatest teams of all time. In fact, they were regarded so highly that, in the middle of the season, they were invited to play a friendly match against Benfica in honor of Benfica player Francisco Ferreira, who was about to sign for Torino in the summer. Torino would lose the friendly 4–3, but after all it was only a friendly, and it was all in good spirits. They departed from Lisbon in the morning the following day, before stopping in Barcelona, where the team would stop and have a peaceful, pleasant lunch with AC Milan, who were there at the same time. As it turned out, the players and staff of Milan would be among the very last to see Grande Torino alive.
The flight back to Turin was seemingly going as planned until it was approaching its destination. The weather conditions were poor, most notably characterized by a thick fog, and it is widely believed that this is what led to the flight deviating from its intended route, as it was approaching Aeroporto di Torino. As a result of this, a turn to the left would cause the flight to crash into the embankment of Basilica di Superga. No survivors were left, and 31 lives were lost. If it made any difference, a few people would luckily miss the fatal trip to– and from Lisbon: full-back Sauro Tomà, reserve goalkeeper Renato Gandolfi, youth player Luigi Giuliano, Vittorio Pozzo, and Ferruccio Novo. Pozzo, aside from having coached Italy to two World Cup wins, was born and raised in Turin, would go on to play for Torino for five years, before taking over as head coach for a 10-year stretch almost immediately after his retirement as a player. No longer the head coach of the Italian National Team, Pozzo had very close ties to Torino at this time, but he didn’t follow the team on its trip to Lisbon, possibly because of tensions between him and Novo. As for Novo, he had birthed the legendary Grande Torino team, but would avoid dying with it due to nothing but a well-timed illness. Torino’s greatest player ever, Valentino Mazzola, was not as lucky. He had missed Torino’s most recent league fixture against scudetto rivals Inter with a sore throat, but had recovered in time for the trip to Lisbon. His life was lost.
Italy was stunned by the tragedy, and the rest of the Serie A would practically forfeit the 1948–49 scudetto to Torino, as they all played their youth teams in the final games of the season. Thus, Grande Torino did end up winning a fifth and final scudetto, but the players, among others, would not get to cherish it. After World War II and the fascist regime had disgraced Italy, Grande Torino had given many Italians at least something to feel proud of. Unfortunately, about four years after the end of the war, that source of pride would meet a devastating fate. On the same day as the funeral of the team, some records claim that a million people mourned the profound loss on the streets of Turin.
A Lost Reality—The Butterfly Effect
On May 4, 1949, we lost 31 human beings to a tragic accident, most importantly. Furthermore, however, we lost one of the greatest teams in the history of football, and if we really think about it, we lost an alternate reality.
The butterfly effect explains how different occurrences, in theory, can precede completely different realities. It is generally used to illustrate how minor occurrences can have monumental implications on the world, but it is also used to illustrate how the change of certain conditions from the past could change reality as we know it. In Italian football, the most successful club is Juventus, Torino’s local rivals, in terms of titles won. Since the Superga air disaster, Torino have won one scudetto and two Coppe Italia, which is not necessarily bad, but generally they have not even been regarded as one of Italy’s seven biggest clubs, let alone the biggest one. Yet, when Grande Torino clinched its fifth and final scudetto in 1949, the club was just one scudetto behind Juventus. In fact, it is also notable that Torino missed out on two opportunities to win the scudetto because of WWII. If they had won the Serie A in both of these seasons, they would have surpassed Juventus in total scudetti won with the final scudetto of Grande Torino in 1949. Since then, however, Juventus have won 29 scudetti, 12 Coppe Italia and two Champions Leagues, in contrast to Torino’s descent into mediocrity. Symbolically, Juventus would even win the scudetto in the season which followed the final season of Il Grande Torino—their first one in 15 years. One could argue that Juventus were destined to dethrone Torino anyway, given the arrival of Gianni Agnelli as club president following WWII, but while Juventus were successful following the Superga air disaster, they were not as dominant as their current scudetto lead of 16 would imply. Their complete domestic dominance rather came as a cause of their nine consecutive scudetti in the 2010's—consider that Milan had nine fewer scudetti, but five more European Cups/Champions Leagues when they won the scudetto in 2011. So, yes, Juventus are the most successful club in the history of Italian football, but their enormous domestic dominance did not quite exist until more recent times, which is to say that they aren’t untouchable; Inter and Milan have largely been right behind them, and maybe one of those two clubs would have been replaced by Torino if not for the Superga air disaster. In fact, maybe Torino would have went on to be even more successful than Juventus?
Today, Juventus is an absolute titan of a football club, and no one thinks twice about it as they’ve enjoyed consistent success since the 1920’s. On the other hand, one wonders what would have happened if the Superga air disaster had been avoided, from a sporting perspective. If Torino had been able to keep going, would they have surpassed Juventus and occupied much of the space which Juventus have taken up in their history? What would the landscape of football, particularly in Italy, look like? Of course, Juventus have famously been backed by the Agnelli family for over 100 years, thereby being notoriously symbolized as the richest of the rich in northern Italy. However, this same rich, glamorous Juventus had been completely overshadowed by Grande Torino. Alas, we can speculate all we want, but reality ultimately persists.
The Irony of Life—Ernő Egri Erbstein
The story of Grande Torino goes way beyond the greatness of the team, and the tragedy of what we lost. There are stories strongly connected to Grande Torino, which — together with the story of the team itself — illustrate the irony of life.
We will start with Ernő Egri Erbstein, a Jewish-Hungarian football manager. In the late 1930’s Erbstein was appointed as the technical director of Torino by Ferruccio Novo, however his permanent/official employment at the club would not last for long. The cause of this was the fact that Erbstein was a Jew, and therefore he was legally not allowed to be employed by the club anymore, on command of the fascist regime of Italy. Nonetheless, his story did not end there. For one, Erbstein supposedly continued to help with the director role unofficially, following his official departure. However, his story would take an even darker tone during WWII. With the war came the Holocaust, and Erbstein was one of countless who were affected by it. He was sent to a Nazi concentration camp in Hungary in 1944, but would be able to escape shortly before he was supposed to be sent to Auschwitz—a “trip” which would almost certainly have robbed Erbstein of his life. Erbstein was not alone in his escape, in fact he escaped together with a man named Béla Guttmann, a fellow Jewish-Hungarian who worked in football.
Béla Guttmann was not particularly well-known at the time, but after the war he would go on to become one of the most legendary managers of all time, particularly with Benfica—the club which inadvertently caused the demise of Grande Torino. Erbstein, meanwhile, would return to Torino, and would continue to play a fundamental role in their success. In fact, so far this article undermines how important he was to Torino; really, Ferruccio Novo was not the sole architect of Grande Torino, but rather built the team with one main partner: Ernő Egri Erbstein. Records detailing Erbstein’s role at Torino differ, likely as a combination of how long it’s been since his time at the club and the fact that he was operating at the club in an unofficial due to racial laws in Italy, for some time. Nonetheless, for instance, there are claims that Torino’s revolutionary tactical change from “Metodo” to Sistema was not only a case of Ferruccio Novo authorizing a copy-and-paste of Herbert Chapman’s tactics, on the recommendation of Felice Borel. Rather, some claim that Ernő Egri Erbstein was the true mastermind who revolutionized Italian football with tactics of his own, although the inspiration from Herbert Chapman is undeniable. In a way it doesn’t make sense, as Torino didn’t transition to Sistema until 1941–42, multiple years after Erbstein initially had to leave; multiple years after Erbstein had to leave the country and return to his native Hungary. However, what we do know is that Erbstein played a fundamental, ell-encompassing role in the success of Grande Torino, from training, to tactics to scouting. So many have spoken of his profound impact on football and the people around him, that it leaves no doubt of his legacy. He was so intertwined with the team that he would almost immediately return to work with the club following the traumatic war.
Ernő Egri Erbstein was– and is a legend of the game, but, together with Béla Guttmann, he would more importantly survive a repulsive genocide which would claim approximately six million victims. In the end, though, it was a flight from Lisbon to Turin, mixed with bad weather; human nature, which led to Ernő Egri Erbstein’s death.
The Irony of Life—Valentino Mazzola
Valentino Mazzola was the crown jewel of Grande Torino. He is regarded by many as the greatest player of his generation, and he is one of Italy’s greatest players of all time. In addition to this, his legacy lives on today, as he is regarded as one of the most influential football players of all time, and arguably the first truly modern footballer ever. For instance, in Milan, players who prefer to dribble the ball rather than passing it, are occasionally referred to as “veneziani”. This term term derives from Mazzola’s time at Venezia, where he would break through, for one, but where he was also particularly known for his impeccable dribbling. Even over 75 years after his death, his legacy lives on.
As for his personal life, Mazzola was quiet and stuck to himself. Football was supposedly always the priority for Mazzola, but at the age of just 10 years old, he did something incredible off the pitch; he saved the life of a six-year oldboy who was about to drown in the Adda river. The name of that little boy was Andrea Bonomi. Later in his life he would go on to make 230 appearances for AC Milan, captaining the side and leading them to one scudetto—just two years after the man who had saved his life, had died in the Superga air disaster.
Another Milan legend, José Altafini, was born and raised in Brazil, but would be nicknamed “Mazzola” due to his Italian heritage and resemblance to the great Valentino Mazzola on the pitch — a huge compliment, which foreshadowed the career he would go on to have. During his career, he would face off against another Mazzola many times; Inter’s Sandro Mazzola. Sandro Mazzola is one of Italy’s greatest players of all time, he was one of the captains of Grande Inter, and he’s currently Inter’s fourth most capped player of all time. His father? Valentino, a quiet and private person from Cassano d’Adda—a town outside of Milan, named after the river Adda. Valentino was reserved indeed, but he was also enormously selfless and charitable. He loved his family, and he loved the of the game of football. Thus, he shared his unconditional love for the game with his son, and he would have wanted nothing more than for Sandro to become an immortalized legend of the game, himself.
Grande Torino Per Sempre
75 years have passed since the Superga air disaster. It is the dark culmination of one of football’s greatest stories, which teaches us a plethora of things. For one, it sets an example for greatness and human achievement, and is deeply inspirational in that regard. On this note, the dominance of “Il Grande Torino” is not the only thing which should be lauded, but also their origins and competition. When Ferruccio Novo became the president of Torino in 1939, they were the little brothers of Juventus, who were backed by the richest family in Italy—a family more rich and powerful than can be described without a long tangent. Nonetheless, sometimes enormous competence does overpower access to enormous resources, and this is such a case. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, though, this story illustrates the sudden nature of loss and the irony of life; with beauty, darkness and sheer absurdity.
That is the story of Grande Torino. It is captivating, it is heartbreaking, it is beautiful, it is absurd and it is ironic; a reflection of life itself.
- Valerio Bacigalupo, Torino goalkeeper (1945–1949)
- Aldo Ballarin, Torino defender (1945–1949)
- Dino Ballarin, Torino goalkeeper (1947–1949)
- Émile Bongiorni, Torino striker (1948–1949)
- Eusebio Castigliano, Torino midfielder (1945–1949)
- Rubens Fadini, Torino midfielder (1948–1949)
- Guglielmo Gabetto, Torino striker (1941–1949)
- Ruggero Grava, Torino striker (1948–1949)
- Giuseppe Grezar, Torino midfielder (1945–1949)
- Ezio Loik, Torino midfielder (1945–1949)
- Virgilio Maroso, Torino defender (1944–1949)
- Danilo Martelli, Torino midfielder (1946–1949)
- Valentino Mazzola, Torino forward (1942–1949)
- Romeo Menti, Torino forward (1946–1949)
- Piero Operto, Torino defender (1948–1949)
- Franco Ossola, Torino midfielder (1939–1949)
- Mario Rigamonti, Torino midfielder (1945–1949)
- Július Schubert, Torino midfielder (1948–1949)
- Ottavio Corina, Torino massage therapist
- Ernő Egri Erbstein, Torino manager (1938–1939 & 1946–1949)
- Leslie Lievesley, Torino coach (1948–1949)
- Arnaldo Agnisetta, Torino general manager
- Andrea Bonaiuti, Torino travel organizer
- Ippolito Civalleri, Torino travel escort
- Renato Casalbore, journalist
- Luigi Cavallero, journalist
- Renato Tosatti, journalist
- Cesare Biancardi, co-pilot
- Celestino D’Inca, engineer
- Pierluigi Meroni, pilot
- Antonio Pangrazi, radio operator
Mai dimenticati.
