‘Something disastrous has happened’: How an air crash instantly wiped out one of soccer’s great teams

Umberto Motto had always dreamed of playing for Torino FC. He had dreamed of pulling on the team’s maroon shirt in front of thousands of adoring fans. And he had dreamed of hearing his name announced as he made his way onto the pitch at the Stadio Filadelfia.

Umberto Motto had always dreamed of playing for Torino FC. He had dreamed of pulling on the team’s maroon shirt in front of thousands of adoring fans. And he had dreamed of hearing his name announced as he made his way onto the pitch at the Stadio Filadelfia. A local boy born in the northern Italian city of Turin and the captain of Torino’s youth team, Motto seemed destined to represent his boyhood club. His dream did come true – and sooner than he expected – but the day was a living 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 that hung over the city and says it hadn’t stopped raining for seven days straight, leading the river Po to burst its banks in places. So bad was the weather that Motto decided to abandon sightseeing in the city and take the two visitors up to the Superga hill and Superga Basilica that overlook Turin, hoping to at least send the tourists home with a view to remember.