With just over a month to go until the new Serie A season starts, teams are starting to gather their squads together and resume training. There is nothing out of the ordinary in this fact, but there was something incredibly special about Torino’s second training session on Tuesday.
In order realise exactly why, it is important to travel back to the most glorious point in Granata history during the 1940’s. The side nicknamed “Il Grande Torino” showed unprecedented dominance throughout this period, beginning a home winning streak on 17th January 1943 that spanned 100 games, and was only stopped by the tragic deaths of the entire side just over six years later.
It was on May 4th 1949 when this great side were travelling back to Turin from Lisbon, after having played a friendly match with S.L Benfica. On approach to landing, the plane crashed into the back of the Basilica at Superga, a church that stands 669m above sea level. The pilot had unwittingly drifted off course and – obscured by thick fog – the church would have suddenly appeared in front of him, leaving no time for him to react.
Unsurprisingly, there were no survivors from this tragic accident, not only leaving Torino without a team, but also leaving the Italian national side decimated. This talented bunch of players were so predominant for the Azzurri that during one famous friendly against Hungary, all ten of the outfield positions were occupied by those who belonged to the Granata.
This tragic loss meant that Italy would take years to recover, but for Torino it has meant that their side has never again reached the heights of those legendary players that will be remembered forever. Every year on May 4th, the current squad walk up the steep hill to Superga to honour those who lost their lives that day, but there is now a means of ensuring their greatness will continue to live on.
During those glory years, the team played at the Stadio Filadelfia in the Lingotto district of Turin. The last match in that stadium was played in 1963, the last goal scored there by Enzo Bearzot, the man who would lead Italy to World Cup success as a Coach in 1982. Just before that final encounter in the late 1950’s, president Ferruccio Novo had given the go-ahead for the historic stadium to become a public space. Indeed, it was then that Torino moved to their current home at the Stadio Olimpico and their former home was left to go to ruin.
Derelict and closed to the public, in recent years the crumbling old stadium had only served as a reminder of the tragic loss suffered at Superga, and there had been several unsuccessful attempts to revive it. But back in 2011, various groups pulled together and came up with the idea to revive the dilapidated Filadelfia, and it took just from the start of the works in October 2015 to completion in May 2017.
“Thanks to the City of Turin, the Piedmont Region, the fans associations and Mamma Cairo Foundation, all gathered together in the Filadelfia Foundation, the dream became reality,” Torino president Urbano Cairo old Gazzetta dello Sport on its opening on May 24th. “The Fila will again house our training sessions: on that pitch steeped in history and glory, day by day, we will build our future. In the city centre, less than a kilometer from the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, next to our people, as required by the history of Toro.”
The training session was attended by the club’s Ultras, with their ever-present “Forza Vecchia Cuore Granata” (Strength to the old Granata heart) banner, the fans perfectly understanding the significance of the moment when the modern day side played inside the stadium that is so synonymous with the club’s history.
Designers have left corners of the old Filadelfia intact alongside the clean and modern part of the stadium, where their seven Scudetti and five Coppa Italia trophies are commemorated under the famous bull emblem. This all serves as a reminder that this is the very place where old meets new, and where Torino can build their future under the shadows of former glory.
