Sauro Tomà (4 December 1925 – 10 April 2018) was an Italian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a full-back. Tomà began his career with Rapallo Ruentes. After playing for Vogherese and

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

, he joined

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

in 1947, where he won two Serie A titles. He escaped the

Superga air disaster The Superga air disaster (, "Tragedy of Superga") occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino F.C., Torino association football, football team (popularly known as the ''Grande ...

in 1949 due to an injured meniscus, which forced him to retire at the age of thirty, in 1955.

Club career

Spezia

Born in Rebocco,

, he began his football career in Rapallo Ruentes. He went on to play for Vogherese, and then for

, after being spotted by a club official of the later during a friendly match. He preferred playing as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, however, as there were many players challenging for the role, he became a full-back.

Torino

He was noted by observers of many teams, amongst them

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

and

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, but

Ferruccio Novo Ferruccio Novo (22 March 1897 – 8 April 1974) was an Italian association football player, coach, and sports manager, who played as a defender. He was the president of the ''Grande Torino''. Playing career Novo spent his entire career playing ...

contacted the Ligurian team management and convinced him to join

. His move to Torino was initially negative, as the transfer was blocked due to alleged

lung The lungs are the primary Organ (biology), organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the Vertebral column, backbone on either side of the heart. Their ...

problems. However, Tomà underwent medical examinations of his own and showed excellent health. Torino had attempted to go back on their deal, as they considered his purchase too challenging (Torino had to exchange five players to Spezia), but Tomà won out. After an immediate apology from Novo, Tomà began his career at Torino as a substitute of Virgilio Maroso, who suffered from continual muscle problems. He was a close friend of Valentino Mazzola, the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of Torino was the first person he met in Turin. Tomà would be the only player to stay close to Mazzola in the period in which he divorced from his first wife (an action disliked by everyone), in order to marry his second wife. He was nicknamed by his Torino teammates "''due metri e settanta''" (2.7 meters) because he had difficulty sweeping through balls inside his own area; those he swept often did not exceed three meters. In the 1948–49 season, he suffered a knee injury which led to a long stretch of absence. As Torino were leaving for

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

to play against Benfica in a farewell game of Jose Ferreira, the Torino doctor only allowed Maroso to play. Upon returning to Turin, the plane crashed on the embankment behind the

Basilica of Superga The Basilica of Superga () is a hilltop Catholic basilica in Superga, in the vicinity of Turin, Italy. History The church was built from 1717 to 1731 for Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, designed by Filippo Juvarra, at the top of the hill of Super ...

, killing all of his teammates. He played for more season with Torino, but failed to find a serenity of mind as the only "survivor" of the team. There were also disagreements within the club, with Ferruccio Novo making a series of inconsistent purchases with the hope of rebuilding the team. Tomà moved to

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

in 1951, and retired from football in 1955 after spending two seasons with

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

.Un grido: "È morto il Torino"
archiviostorico.gazzetta.it

Post-career

Tomà lived near the Stadio Filadelfia in Turin, and participated in many initiatives involving the ''Grande Torino''. Having been the only living player of the Grande Torino, he wrote many books as a testimony to the team, most notably ''Me Grand Turin'', in which he wrote about his entire football career, from beginning to his experience in Turin.

Honours

Club

Torino *

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

(2): 1947–48, 1948–49 A.S. Bari *

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

(1): 1953–54 *

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

(1): 1954–55

Bibliography

* Vecchio Cuore Granata, ''Sauro Tomà'', in collaboration with Sergio Barbero, Graphot Editrice, October 1988. * Me Grand Turin, ''Sauro Tomà'', Graphot edition, 1998. *

References

External links

Sauro Tomà ''on Enciclopediadelcalcio.it, 2011.''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toma, Sauro 1925 births 2018 deaths Footballers from La Spezia Men's association football fullbacks Italian men's footballers Torino FC players Serie A players Serie C players Serie D players ASD AVC Vogherese 1919 players Spezia Calcio players Brescia Calcio players SSC Bari players 20th-century Italian sportsmen