(CNN) — Umberto Motto had always dreamed of playing for Torino FC. He had dreamed of putting on the team’s maroon jersey in front of thousands of unconditional fans. And he had dreamed of hearing his name when he jumped onto the pitch of the Philadelphia Stadium.
Born in the northern Italian city of Turin and captain of Torino’s youth team, Motto seemed destined to represent his boyhood club.
His dream came true – and sooner than he expected – but that day was a real nightmare.
On May 4, 1949, Motto was giving a tour of Turin to two clients of his parents’ factory, which manufactured shirts for Torino and the Italian national team.
Motto recalls a dense fog hanging over the city and says it had not stopped raining for seven days straight, leading the Po River to overflow its banks in some places.
The weather was so bad that Motto decided to stop sightseeing around the city and take the two visitors to Superga Hill and the Superga Basilica, which towers over Turin, hoping to at least send the tourists home. with views to remember.
However, the weather worsened and the fog barely allowed them to see a few meters away, much less the city. On the way back to Turin, the trio stopped for coffee and Motto remembers him chatting with the café owner about how unusually bad the weather had been.
When they returned to the city, they encountered another unusual sight: the roads packed with cars honking.
“We thought something good had happened,” Motto, now 93, recalls to CNN.
Umberto Motto as a Torino youth team player. (Courtesy of Umberto Motto)
Motto returned to Torino FC’s headquarters in the city, where he was greeted by the building’s concierge, Mario Lanati, who quickly ushered him upstairs.
“Umberto, you have to know that something disastrous happened,” Lanati told him. “The plane has crashed.”
Motto answered confused: “What plane?”
Lanati’s response would irrevocably change Motto’s life and that of everyone related to Torino.
The plane Lanati was talking about was transporting almost the entire Torino first team from Lisbon (Portugal), where they had played a friendly match against Benfica.
When the approach to Turin-Aeritalia airport was affected by weather conditions, the plane crashed into the side of the Superga hill, causing the death of all 31 people on board.
Among the deceased were 18 Torino first team players, their coaches, Italian sports journalists and the flight crew. It remains one of the biggest sporting catastrophes in history and immediately wiped out one of the best teams Italian football has ever known.
That Torino, affectionately known as “Grande Torino” for its incredible successes, had been on the verge of winning its fifth consecutive Italian league title, while its players also formed the backbone of the Italian team of the time.
The impact on the city and its people was devastating. Writer Roberto Pennino spent years interviewing those affected and recounts the feeling of loss in his book “Torino Immortal,” which has been published in English to mark the 75th anniversary of the disaster.
“The players who perished in Superga were very accessible,” Pennino explains to CNN. “You could see them all over the city. They went to the same restaurants, the same movie theaters, the same bakeries as their followers.”
“When they died, they were greatly missed, as a team, but also in the city itself. Everywhere they were seen, people could chat with them. Many people felt as if they had lost a family member.”
Giulio Andreotti (left) congratulates youth captain Motto (second from right) on the champion title. (Courtesy of Umberto Motto)
In addition to the emotional scars that remain visible even 75 years later, Pennino says the sporting cost to Torino was “disastrous.”
The club did not have the money or the transfer coffers that it has today. All of Torino’s capital was on the pitch, explains Pennino. Players.
The clubs were supportive during Torino’s difficult situation. Until a certain point. Other Italian teams loaned – and even gave – players to Torino, says Pennino.
“But never the best, of course,” he adds.
The club’s president, Feruccio Novo, desperately tried to rebuild the team, but would never achieve his goal.
“He had the idea of making a second ‘Grande Torino’ and buying stars, to honor those players, but also to maintain the results they had,” Pennino says.
But there was no money, and the support of other teams was not enough.
After winning five consecutive championships, Torino has only won the top division title once in the intervening 75 years, in 1975-76.
“Torino immortal”, by Roberto Pennino, has been published in three languages. (Courtesy of Roberto Pennino)
“Forza ragazzi”
Still trying to process what Lanati had told him, Motto continued to deny it. Surely, this was impossible, he thought. He had just been to Superga and hadn’t seen or heard anything.
Lanati sat Motto down next to the radio and told him to listen. The following news confirmed the tragedy.
As the minutes and hours passed, more and more people related to the club arrived at the headquarters: the rest of the youth team, the players’ wives and, finally, president Novo.
Motto recalls that Novo, who only missed the trip to Lisbon due to illness, had to be physically restrained by two fans as he entered the building. “He was literally devastated,” says Motto. “Like all of us”.
Motto says Novo considered the team more like sons than players.
Some journalists had also managed to enter the building, Motto recalls, and were asking questions of those present. They only received silence.
“No one dared to speak,” says Motto. “Because we understood that in a situation like this there is no possibility of conversation.”
Days later, the players’ families received the postcards they had been sent while the team was in Lisbon, a touching detail that Pennino said still gives him goosebumps.
Motto at the Superga monument next to Pennino (left). (Courtesy of Roberto Pennino)
With four games left in the season, the rest of the league and the Italian federation agreed to award the title to Torino, but the team still had to finish the season.
The federation accepted Torino’s proposal that its youth team, Italian champions at the time, face the youth teams of its four remaining rivals.
Before the first game against Genoa – just 11 days after the accident – Motto remembers Novo entering the locker room and hugging each player individually, before telling them: “Boys, your teachers are watching you.”
Even the referee had words of encouragement, according to Motto. “Forza ragazzi,” the referee said to the Torino players: “Come on, guys.”
As captain of the youth team, Motto was also named captain for the remaining four matches and led the team on the field against Genoa at the Stadio Philadelphia. Motto had achieved it. His dream had come true. Only he had arrived in the most unimaginable circumstances.
The Torino youth team beat Genoa 4-0 in an atmosphere that Motto has never forgotten. The level of noise normally only reserved for a goal echoed through the stands with every pass the team made.
After beating Genoa, Torino beat Palermo, Sampdoria and Fiorentina in the last games of the season. “They honored their mentors in the best way possible,” Pennino says.
It is estimated that up to 700,000 fans lined the streets as the players’ coffins were paraded through the city two days after the accident.
The “Grande Torino” monument in Superga. (Courtesy of Roberto Pennino)
Today, the club continues to honor its heroes and will hold a religious service this Saturday, on the 75th anniversary of the catastrophe, at the Monumental Cemetery in Turin, where some of the players are buried.
In the afternoon, there will be a mass in the Basilica of Superga, before the day ends with a service at the Torino FC memorial at the top of the hill.
“Every year they continue to be remembered,” says Pennino. “On May 4, the names are exclaimed on the Superga hill. It is a worthy tribute to those great players.”
