Franco Ossola

Franco Ossola
Personnel
birthday	August 23, 1921
place of birth	Varese ,  Italy
date of death	May 4, 1949
Place of death	Superga ,  Italy
position	striker
Juniors
Years	station
	FC Varese
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1938-1939	FC Varese	9 0(3)
1939-1949	AC Turin	175 (85)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1943	Italy U21	1 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Franco Ossola (born August 23, 1921 in Varese , † May 4, 1949 in Superga ) was an Italian football player who played at club level for FC Varese and AC Turin and was part of the famous Grande Torino team . Having become Italian champion five times, he, like almost all of his teammates, was killed in the Superga plane crash .

Career

Franco Ossola, born in 1921 in the Lombard city of Varese , began playing football for the local club FC Varese . After going through the club's youth departments, Ossola was inducted into the adult team at Varese FC in 1938. Here he came in his first season on nine missions as part of the C series , in which he scored three goals.

Ferruccio Novo , the president of AC Turin , became aware of the young attacker and hired him. AC Turin had become Italian runner-up last year and was about to develop into an absolute top team. In the first two seasons of Franco Ossola's presence at the Stadio Filadelfia , however, only placements in midfield of Serie A were achieved. From 1941 and 1942, however, the picture changed. Ferruccio Novo made a number of high-profile transfers; in 1941 he signed Pietro Ferraris from Ambrosiana-Inter and in 1942 Valentino Mazzola and Ezio Loik from AC Venice . The successes came soon, and in the 1942/43 AC Turin won the first championship since the introduction of Serie A. A point separated the team from US Livorno , who was in second place in the table.

Due to the Second World War and the unrest in Italy, gaming was subsequently suspended for two years; an official Italian football championship was not held again until 1945/46. From 1945 onwards, the AC Turin team developed to its full potential and went down in Italian football history as the Grande Torino . Up to 1949 they became Italian champions four more times in a row and were characterized above all by their very high offensive strength; at their heyday, the Turin team scored more than a hundred goals per season. The attack series around Mazzola, Romeo Menti and Guglielmo Gabetto also included Franco Ossola, who came to 175 league games in his years with Torino and scored a total of 85 times. Ossola was particularly successful in the master craftsman years 1946 and 1947.

Death and honors

After first place in Serie A in 1948/49 was secured by a 1-1 draw against AS Bari , Torino's President Novo agreed a friendly against Benfica Lisbon in Portugal . On the way home, in heavy fog, the plane crashed into a church on the Superga hill in the urban area of Turin shortly before landing . All occupants of the plane were killed in the accident, including 27-year-old Franco Ossola. With him and the other victims, a large Italian football team also died; the successful streak of AC Turin was over forever. It was not until 1976 before the Scudetto could be won again. Ossola was buried on the Cimitero monumentale di Torino . In front of the stadium of the Varese Calcio SSD , which bears his name, there is a memorial stone for Franco Ossola.

After his death in Superga, Franco Ossola received posthumous honors. This is how his hometown club FC Varese (today: Varese Calcio SSD) renamed his stadium, which was formerly called Stadio del Littorio , to Stadio Franco Ossola in 1950 in the first year after the plane crash .

successes

• Italian championship : 5 times

1942/43 , 1945/46 , 1946/47 , 1947/48 and 1948/49 with AC Turin

• Italian Cup victory : 1 time

1942/43 with AC Turin

Web links

Commons : Franco Ossola  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Franco Ossola in the database of the Enciclopedia del Calcio (Italian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Franco Ossola