Football training camp Torino Football Club in Val Gardena

Torino Football Club, Torino FC or Torino for short is an Italian football club from the Piedmontese capital Turin, founded in 1906. Other names are "I Granata" ("The Garnets") and "Il Toro" ("The Bull"). Torino FC are seven-time Italian champions and five-time Italian Cup winners. The club's home ground is the Olympic Stadium in Turin.

The club's most successful period was between 1942 and 1949, when the team, led by captain Valentino Mazzola, went down in football history as the Grande Torino and is still considered one of the best ever to play in the Serie A. AC Torino won five consecutive league titles between 1943 and 1949, interrupted by the Second World War, equalling the record set by Juventus in the first half of the 1930s. The last of these five title wins nevertheless ranks as the saddest chapter in the club's history. On the fifth-last matchday, they secured the Scudetto with a 1-1 draw at main rivals Inter Milan, with Valentino Mazzola equalising shortly before the final whistle. The result was a trip to Portugal for a friendly against Benfica Lisbon. On the return flight on 4 May 1949, the plane crashed in dense fog a few metres below the Basilica of Superga into the hill of the same name above Turin. Nearly all of the team's players died, as were club officials and three accompanying journalists. Of the Grande Torino squad, only Sauro Tomà, who had not made the trip to Lisbon due to injury, survived. The season was played to a close by the A youth team.

The Fedelissimi Granata grouping of Torino FC, founded in 1951, is considered probably the most important precursor of the Italian Ultra movement. Turin FC sees itself as the true club of the city, which is reflected in statements such as "We Turinese love the bull, only it represents this wonderful city". It should be noted that the heraldic animal of both the city and the club is a bull. And indeed, the majority of the city is in the hands of the Torino FC fan scene.

Official Torino FC homepage: www.torinofc.it