The rise, fall and rise of Torino FC

On June 26th 2005, Torino Calcio – a staple of Italian History – celebrated their return to the Serie A after two consecutive seasons in the wilderness of the Serie B.

This joy was short lived after excessive debts led to the denial of Torino’s entry and just forty days later, on August ninth 2005, Torino ceased to exist as it filed for bankruptcy.

This seemed to be another tragic note in the club’s history.

The club is well known for the golden years of Il Grande Torino, one of the most dominant sporting sides in history, who still hold the record for most goals scored in a season with 125 across all leagues in Europe. At their height in 1949, the team famously supplied the Italian National Team with 10 of the 11 starting players for the side and in one instance all 11 players to start for Italy were players for Torino.

Such things must come to an end, normally by age or retirement. In Torino’s case the end was tragic and at the end of the 1948/49 season with four games left to play, the Superga Distaster occurred.

The plane, returning the team from a friendly in Portugal crashed into the Basilica of Superga, killing all 31 people aboard and the entirety of the Il Grande Torino Line-up. At the funeral, almost a million people showed up to pay their respects to their fallen heroes.

Ironically, had Torino lost the match before they left they would have stayed in Italy and continued to fight for the Serie A title. Instead a 0-0 draw against Inter led to the demise of arguably the greatest football team in history.

The following years were tough and after fighting on Torino finally succumbed to their first relegation in 1959. In 1960 they immediately returned but were only able to enjoy mid-table results.

Their struggle to return to the top of Italian football was only compounded when Gigi Meroni, named the ‘Italian George Best’ died after being hit by a car in 1964. Nevertheless Torino persevered and in 1976, they finally won another Serie A title and returned to the Top of Italian Football.

They enjoyed a successful run until the 1988-89 season where a strong team, one expected to challenge for the title, astonishingly failed to succeed and Torino were relegated for the second time in their history.

An immediate return and adventures in the Europa Cup led Torino to their first European Final against Ajax in 1992, where over the course of two legs Torino lost 2-2 on away goals, hitting the post three times in the second leg over in Amsterdam.

The summer of 1992/93 marked huge financial problems for Torino. This led to the rapid selling of their star players, the following years resulted in struggles against relegation.

In 1994/95 the team was relegated once again, this time however the team didn’t bounce back up. It took them three years to return, upon which they were immediately relegated. The team rose again in 2001, but two years later in 2003 they returned to the Serie B and in 2005 the club finally fell after years of poor financial management and disappointment.

Torino Calcio was dead. Or so most of Italian Football thought, until Urbano Cairo led the revival and the club, renamed Torino F.C returned to the Serie B.

After bouncing between the two divisions once again, Torino hired Giampiero Ventura in 2011, with immediate success following promotion in the 2011-2012 season, the side then managed to retain their place within the Serie A the next year – then the unthinkable happened.

Guided by the strike force of Alessio Cerci and Ciro Immobile, Torino returned to the top half of Italian Football. A late push for European Football saw the side finish seventh after Cerci missed the penalty in the final match, which would have assured them a place in Europe.

It seemed as if the club had fallen short of a triumphant return to Europe. That was until Parma were denied entry following unpaid taxes and Torino returned to European Competition after a 12-year absence.

This year, after the sales of Immobile and Cerci, the club initially struggled.

A large variety of signings were brought in to add much needed depth, and after a rough start the club has now improved to currently sit ninth in the Serie A. They are deadlocked with Milan and Palermo, chasing Europe once again.

A successful stint in the Europa League is still underway with a second leg match with Athletico Bilbao to follow next week. Both sides are locked at 2-2 after a magnificent opening leg at the Stadio Olimpico.

For a club which has continually seen tragedy in the face of their efforts, and almost been torn apart after the poor financial management of previous owners, it seems as if Torino is finally returning to the top of Italian football, a place which they perhaps should have never truly left.