Turin’s luckiest man recalls Torino aircrash

Fifty years after his friends were smashed to death on a misty Italian hillside, Sauro Toma still regards himself as the luckiest man in Turin.

Toma was a member of the great Torino soccer side who emerged from the rubble of post-war Italy to win four consecutive Serie A titles from 1946-49.

He played 24 times in Torino's majestic 1947-48 season when they scored a record 125 league goals, took the title by 16 points, won all but one of their 20 home matches and set a championship record by winning one game 10-0.

And above all, thanks to a minor knee injury, Toma was lucky enough to miss out on the blackest day in the club's history.