An interview with author Roberto Pennino- The Great Turin –

Torino gained 5 consecutive league titles within the Nineteen Forties, taking part in a flowing model of soccer with such dominance they had been named Grande Torino. Their dominance was tragically and shockingly halted on the 4th of Could 1949. Coming back from a pleasant with Benfica in Portugal, the airplane crashed into the hilltop Basilica of Superga in Turin.

The air catastrophe claimed the lives of all these on board, together with a lot of the staff and their coaches, in addition to accompanying journalists and crew.

Roberto Pennino’s ebook, initially revealed in his native Holland, has been translated and revealed within the UK by Pitch Publishing. It’s a well-written, well-researched and shifting account of that great staff, and serves as a becoming tribute. I caught up with Roberto to listen to of about his personal historical past with Grande Torino and his writing course of.

The ebook is on the market by way of pitch publishing and all main booksellers. You may as well learn our beforehand revealed extract- You possibly can learn an extract from the ebook on the Gentleman Extremely– An extract from Immortal Torino by Roberto Pennino –

You should buy the ebook and discover extra info at Immortal Torino | Pitch Publishing

James Oddy (JO): How did you come to write down concerning the Grande Torino staff?

Roberto Pennino (RP): The beginning was in July 1999.  The air crash was 50 years in the past at that time limit and I used to be in Italy. I noticed a newspaper about that staff that was a few months previous. I used to be fascinated by it. It was an entire web page of images of the gamers that died in that crash. In January of that very same yr my mom had out of the blue died, and he or she was solely 49 years previous. So these two issues acquired linked in my head as a result of my mother was born in the identical yr that Il Grande Torino perished. One thing about it made it stick and since I didn’t know something about that air crash catastrophe, I began searching for books about it. I realised in The Netherlands the place I’m born, raised and nonetheless reside, the Grande Torino story was not identified in any respect. There have been no books or articles that I knew of. I had turn out to be so concerned within the story that I wished to convey it to The Netherlands. I’ve came upon within the years since that there are some fairly good books in Italian.

JO: What’s your individual background in Italian soccer or Italy? Have been you a Torino fan?

RP: I wasn’t a Torino fan in any respect. However by some means this story concerning the nice Torino staff, it supersedes every little thing, even in Italy itself. Even in case you’re a Roma fan or a fan of no matter staff. Everyone respects the story and the historical past of Il Grande Torino. Within the sixties my father got here from Sicily to the south of The Netherlands. That’s my Italian, or Sicilian, heritage.

JO: Has the Grande Torino staff turn out to be legendary due to the tragedy? Or was it the fantastic thing about the soccer that has given them a long-lasting legacy?

RP: Effectively, that’s an attention-grabbing query, in a way that clearly you possibly can by no means know for positive. However I believe {that a} tragedy like this all the time provides to the parable. I wrote my ebook to not discard the parable, however to research the parable. How was this staff regarded within the days that they had been nonetheless round? I dug deep within the archives of that point. So, the statements of persons are not being influenced by the truth that they died within the air crash. In the event you look simply on the soccer, it was a really sturdy staff with key gamers like Valentino Mazzola because the captain. They died of their prime and gained 5 titles in a row. They fashioned the spine of the Italian staff. 10 Torino gamers performed for Italy in opposition to Hungary (in 1947), probably the most from any membership aspect to look for the nationwide staff in a single match.

They’d a flavour of what turned to be often called whole soccer, just like the Dutch performed within the 70s. Everyone had to have the ability to assault, but additionally to defend. It was an natural sort of favor, they usually scored a whole lot of objectives. The crash added to the parable, however in case you look again like I did at newspapers of the time, they will need to have been a terrific staff to observe.

JO: Now we have a whole lot of readers of the positioning who’re writers and researchers in their very own proper. Are you able to inform me your progress for such in-depth analysis?

I all the time loved unravelling issues, to dig very deep into stuff, as a result of what I skilled by studying all these Italian books is that writers are mentioning or writing stuff that different folks have written earlier than. There’s no drawback with that. However for instance, when Grande Torino went to Lisbon for a recreation in opposition to Benfica earlier than they perished in Superga there was a sure city legend. In a whole lot of books that I learn, it’s mentioned that after they got here again from the sport in opposition to Benfica, they’d a stopover in Barcelona. At that second, they’re alleged to have met gamers of AC Milan who had been getting back from Madrid. Effectively, legend had it that the chairman of Espanyol heard that each had been on the airport, and he recommended taking part in a match collectively, to have these two massive groups in his stadium. That was unusual. I imply, they’d have been possibly half an hour or an hour on the similar place on the similar time, and the way did the Espanyol chairman know that? You then dig into the archives of a newspaper, and I spent many hours simply looking for one thing concerning the assembly between these gamers, and abruptly, after three weeks of looking for one thing that may give me one thing to work with I discovered a really small article.  They’d met on the flights out, not in the course of the return kind Lisbon. You recognize, you must be a bit of bit loopy, however to me, that’s one thing to be very enthusiastic about. Once you discover out one thing, since you had a hunch that it didn’t add up, that it was unusual, one thing virtually each ebook concerning the staff talked about, after which I came upon that it wasn’t fully true. The assembly occurred, however on a special second. I actually get pleasure from unravelling issues like that.

JO: Torino was thought of to be an enormous staff, like Juventus or Inter nowadays. The gamers of that staff had a spell of large success. Is that why are nonetheless so cherished?

RP: I believe there’s a sliding doorways factor within the story. What would have occurred had they not gone to Lisbon? It’s straightforward and logical to say they may have been champions for the subsequent ten years. However it didn’t occur. And that’s one thing I investigated. How would life be for the Torino squad if they’d have come residence and simply began a brand new season a few months later? And, I imply, there have been issues altering. The truth that this catastrophe occurred, every little thing was being put into ashes, like Pompeii. These gamers are eternally collectively as that invincible staff.

However the English coach Leslie Lievesley, he had already signed the contract for Juventus. Mazzola, the big-name captain, he was very near going to Internazionale as a result of he wished, on the finish of his profession, lastly make some extra money for his household. Each nice staff has an finish of a run. Ajax within the 70s, AC Milan round 1990 with Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten or Barcelona with Pep Guardiola and Messi. Each massive staff has a cycle of success that ends. You can’t have 10 years on the identical degree – successful every little thing. It’s not going to occur… Perhaps they may have, over a interval of 4 or 5 years, created a brand new staff. The older guys with possibly a few gamers from outdoors of Turin. However the membership was an empty shell after the crash. All the things was gone, all people was gone. So, their reign was over and that, in fact, massively modified the course for the membership.

However there’s one factor that would have been totally different. And that may be the participation of the nationwide staff within the 1950 World Cup, as a result of if the Torino gamers would have been nonetheless round Italy might have had a very totally different run, I’m positive. Not that they essentially would have gained the World Cup in Brazil, however because of the Superga crash they had been pressured to ship a staff with, while I wouldn’t say mediocre gamers, however undoubtedly with loads much less proficient gamers than the Torino ones. And due to the air crash, the Italian federation didn’t wish to lose one other staff. So they’d a really lengthy and fatiguing journey to Brazil by boat.

In a way, in 1968 Mazzola’s son, Sandro, stuffed that hole by successful the European Championship with Italy. It was the primary title for the nationwide staff for 30 years.

Sandro Mazzola with a Dutch copy of the ebook

JO: Was there any gamers or folks concerned with the membership that while you had been researching you felt historical past had forgotten a bit of bit?

RP: It relies upon in case you imply Italy or the remainder of the world. In Italy, the gamers are nonetheless properly remembered. However Torino’s long-time Hungarian coach, Erbstein, deserves extra credit for his affect on the sport. He needed to flee Italy attributable to antisemitism. He had a philosophy that was very trendy for that point. Erbstein believed firmly in humanism, and he checked out his gamers at the start as human beings. Dutch coach Louis van Gaal, who applied a really related thought at Ajax within the 90s, was very impressed that there was a visionary man known as Erbstein who in a way preceded him within the 40s.