A legendary team that took to heaven 75 years ago. It was May 4, 1949 when the team returning from Lisbon crashed into the embankment of the Superga basilica.
Superga is an iconic place, it overlooks Turin from above, but it was fatal to that invincible team that was writing the history of Italian football.
On May 4, 1949, all the players, technical staff, managers and some journalists who were on that Fiat G212 died.
Bad weather that day made one of the greatest football stories of all time disappear. Five championships in a row, an Italian Cup, but above all those players all played for the national team.
Today May 4th, in honor of the great Torino, is World Football Day.
Bacigalupo, Ballarin, Maroso, Grezar, Rigamonti, Castigliano, Menti, Loik, Gabetto, Mazzola, Ossola. This is the lineup, recited like a poem, that all Granata fans know by heart and have passed down from father to son as only happens with legends.
Something incredible happened on 11 May 1947 when the coach of the national team, Pozzo, fielded ten elevenths of Turin, Bacigalupo’s place in goal was played by Sentimenti IV, considered better than the Granata goalkeeper on penalty kicks. That match was commented by Niccolò Carosio who proudly said: “Torino is our national team”. That day Italy defeated the highly rated Hungary 3-2.
