This was also the same year in which they achieved the double for the first time, topping the League Championship for the 1942-3 season with 44 points.
Il Grande Torino, as the team was known, was on a footballing roll in the 1940s, dominating the Italian league and winning the next four seasons in a row.
Then in 1949 disaster struck. In a tragedy that was to be echoed with equally horrific results a few years later for Manchester United, 18 members of the Torino squad were killed in a plane crash on their return from a match in Portugal.
This disaster not only robbed Torino of its star players but also took away much of the national side. It was not until 1971 that Torino won the Coppa for the third time and, to mark this occasion, and the retirement of Torino’s captain, Natalino Fossati, the Club’s president presented Fossati with this cup.
Last week it was up for sale at Christie’s South Kensington in their September 24 football memorabilia auction. As an iconic item from a legendary team, its appearance under the hammer generated huge pre-sale interest in Italy and a big Italian press presence at the sale.
The Coppa was purchased for a mid-estimate £40,000 (plus 17.5 per cent premium) by Francesco Cimminelli, a major shareholder of the Torino club, who was bidding from Christie’s Turin office, and fittingly it will now be returning home to Torino football club.
A cup that pours forth joy and sorrow in equal measure
THE Coppa Italia is the Italian equivalent of the English FA cup. When the example shown right was won by Torino in 1943 it was the second occasion on which they had taken home the trophy.
