The perfect derby, the greatest victory on the saddest day, the one on which no one wanted to celebrate: in 1967, a week after the tragic death of Gigi Meroni, Torino was the protagonist of one of the most dominant derby wins in history
June 26 – 10.35am
Cruel was the fate that 15 October 1967, a footballing Turin exalted by an impressive victory was tragically transformed into a dark Turin, desperate for the death of its “adopted son”, who perished in Corso Re Umberto when, while crossing the road, the the car of the future president of Toro Attilio Romero overwhelmed him. Gigi Meroni it was no longer there, the garnet butterfly had flown to Paradise. Fate, mockingly, wanted that exactly one week after that tragic loss, Torino and Juventus faced each other in what went down in history as the derby of tears and anger.
INTRODUCTION
—
It was a Torino that was getting back on its feet after the depression of the late 1950s which led to relegation to Serie B. The Granata were coming from a handful of seasons of re-foundation and were trying to rebuild the foundations of the team under the orders of Nereo Rocco, coach del Toro for 4 seasons from 1963 to 1967, with which he achieved an extraordinary 3rd place in the 1964-1965 season – the best placing after Superga. However, beyond this exploit, it was a Toro who floated in mid-table from 7th to 10th place in the championship. In the 1967-1968 season, the Granata President Orfeo Pianelli decided to change technical leadership and entrusted Turin to Edmondo Fabbri, who, despite himself, was the protagonist in the 1966 World Cup with the Italian national team in a failed expedition that ended in the group stage and with the throwing of tomatoes on the return leg in Italy. Despite this experience, the Granata boss believes in him and entrusts him with the keys to a team that boasts players of the caliber of Fossati, Puia, Albrigi and Moschino, a French striker with broad shoulders who arrived the year before called Combin and the rising star Gigi Meroni, a 24-year-old native of Como who arrived from Genoa for 300 million lire at the request of Rocco, who saw in that twenty-year-old the future of Italian and Granata football. Fabbri’s Torino season started badly: a 1-0 defeat against Vicenza caused the Granata’s mood to collapse after an invincible pre-season. However, that first day proved to be only a blunder and Toro immediately got back into the running with 4 consecutive useful results (3 wins and a draw), the last of which was a resounding success: 4-2 against Sampdoria with a hat-trick from Combin and Moschino. After the joy of the victory achieved, however, we moved on to trauma and desperation.
After the match won against Sampdoria, Meroni could not immediately return to his home in Corso Re Umberto because he did not have the keys, so he decided to spend the evening with his teammate and friend Poletti at the Zambon bar. The two crossed Corso Re Umberto again at number 46 and stopped in the middle of the roadway waiting to complete the crossing, but, seeing a car arriving in front of them, they took a step back. At that exact moment they were hit by a Fiat 124 Coupé coming from the opposite direction: Poletti was grazed, but Meroni wasn’t as lucky. The 124 hit his left leg and threw him into the air, Meroni fell to the ground in the opposite lane where he was again hit full on by a Lancia Appia. He immediately received help from a passerby who rushed him to the Mauriziano hospital in Turin, but that race against time was useless. At 10.40pm, Luigi Meroni died, prematurely leaving a companion – Cristiana Uderstadt – and a people who, thanks to him, were returning to breathe the glories of the past. More than 20,000 people attended Meroni’s funeral and mourning shook the city. Those people who mourned the Invincibles of Grande Torino just under 20 years earlier were once again overwhelmed by desperation at having lost a boy and an idol for the new generations, with that British look and that bravado of the young people of the time that he managed to replicate on the pitch thanks to the art he drew with his plays.
A true tragedy for the team and the fans. Those who mourned the loss of the Granata butterfly the most were his teammates, those who carried the coffin on their shoulders and who had the task of remembering and honoring him, even on the field. Seven days after that tragic death, in a surreal climate in which football had become the last of the priorities, fate decided that it was time for the derby.
THE MATCH
—
The last derby won by Torino dates back to 3 years earlier, on 14 June 1964, a 2-0 Toro-Juve win in the Italian Cup signed by Hitchens and Peirò, but to find a victory in the championship we have to go back another year, to 3 March 1963, when the Granata won 0-1 thanks to Crippa’s goal. In the 8 derbies following the last Granata success, the Bianconeri won 4 times and drew 4 times, conceding only 2 goals in 8 matches. That Juventus, the Juve Workers by Heriberto Herrera, was dragged by the great ex Gigi Simoni, and had the scudetto sewn on his chest given the scudetto won in the ’66-’67 season.
The situation was almost tragic: the week of preparation for the derby was very difficult for Fabbri’s players to face. Fossati, Meroni’s roommate, said that the training sessions were very few – the preparations for the funeral of his recently deceased companion had become primary – and were conditioned by a soft pace, in surplus, but at the same time full of anger. Fabbri and Pianelli in the week leading up to the match had tried to calm the environment. However, the days passed, between tears and pain, and the day of the derby arrived. President Pianelli went down to the locker room after the warm-up and made a final speech to the team. He touched the pride, he touched the soul and heart of those men, he told them to try to bring out that something extra for Gigi, to get to where only Meroni could have dragged them.
In that derby, before the match, in the silence of both sets of fans, a helicopter flooded the field with flowers, which were then collected on the right flank, the one on which Meroni danced. And right from kick-off, it was clear that the match was destined to end in only one way. “That anger, a week after the fact, had not yet passed – said the number 1 of the Lido Vieri team – there wouldn’t have been any for anyone”. In fact, only 3 laps of the clock passed, and Combin, in anger, scored the 1-0 with a powerful free kick that pierced Colombo. 4 minutes later Combin received the ball again in midfield, snatched the ball and invented a Eurogoal from 30 meters which went out into the opposite top corner. That anger which was transformed into competitive aggression made Toro the absolute master of the pitch and dominator of the game. Ahead 2-0 after just 7 minutes, Juventus was never really in the game and, in the 60th minute, conceded 3-0: Combin escaped on the edge of offside and from a very tight angle, beat Colombo for the third time, making Colombo celebrate again the Municipality. The “party” had already started even though someone was still missing from the appointment. There was no need to wait long, because 7 minutes later, the number 7 grenade, that shirt that 7 days earlier wore the grenade butterfly, scored a goal: it was Carelli who wore it and honored it who, with the same rapidity as the grenade butterfly, sacrificed himself on the right wing and with a right-footed shot of tension and nerves he sealed the 4-0 of Torino.
That derby was the triumph that everyone wouldn’t have wanted. Fossati later said that they would have gladly done without the anger that had developed over the death of their friend and that they would have preferred to lose the derby 4-0 and still have Meroni alive. At the final whistle the audience burst into tears, the players equally, chanting a timid “hurray” in memory of Gigi, but the joy of that victory was a meager satisfaction for everyone compared to the loss of the footballer, the man and the idol. Meroni, the garnet butterfly.
THE SCORESHEET
—
JUVENTUS – TURIN 0-4 (0-2)
Juventus: Colombo, Gori, Leoncini, Bercellino, Sarti, Salvadore, Simoni, Del Sol, Zigoni, Sacco, Menichelli. Available Fioravanti. All.: Heriberto Herrera.
Turin: Vieri, Poletti, Fossati, Puia, Trebbi, Agroppi, Carelli, Ferrini, Combin, Moschino, Facchin. Available Sattolo. All.: Blacksmiths.
Referee: Francescon of Padua.
Networks: Combin 3′, 7′, 60′, Carelli 67′
TURIN’S OTHER HISTORICAL MATCHES
—
October 17, 1926 – Turin-Fortitudo Roma, the victory that inaugurated the Philadelphia
May 2, 1948 – Turin-Alessandria and the record of the Invincibles ahead of the Insatiables
June 19, 1993 – Rome-Turin, 31 years ago the sweetest defeat that has ever existed
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
