Ricardo Bentín Mujica, with the support of his wife, co-owners of
Backus and Johnston brewery, was the man who is credited with achieving the company's goal. A club from Rímac ward, known as
Sporting Tabaco founded in 1926 and originally belonging to the tobacco growers' union, was already playing in the professional
Peruvian First Division. Never having won a national championship, the club was in dire economic straits. Bentín decided to buy the club and search for a playing ground, so that the club could develop and be able to play better at the professional level. The club found a lot in the neighborhood of
La Florida of 137,000 m2. On 13 December 1955 the club was founded as
Sporting Cristal, after Backus' best-known beer brand,
Cristal. The new club from the Rímac ward debuted in 1956 in the professional Primera Division and won their first national title that same year. Journalists thus called them the club born a champion (
nació campeon). The team managed to win more titles over the years and was known as one of the best football clubs in
Peru after
Universitario and
Alianza Lima. Even before its foundation, the Sporting Cristal Backus project had more than one opponent: articles from the time point out how certain sports journalists and football clubs viewed with displeasure that a team was financed by a private company. Even the
Peruvian Football Federation itself put legal obstacles in the way of the team before and after its merger; until March 1956 the FPF did not authorize the team's participation in that year's championship, arguing from the prohibition of advertising in the clubs to the fact that they should have names of national heroes, places or institutions of the country. Various legal outlets were used for the impositions of the Federation, however, the controversy did not end until 1968,when the word "Backus" was finally removed from the club's name. , Cristal's most historic player, achieving 4 titles with the club As a champion of Peru in 1956 and 1961, the Cristal was invited to tour various parts of the world in 1962, this being the first tour made by a champion team of Peru. The series of matches began in the
United States, continued through several Asian cities such as
Kuala Lumpur,
Malacca City and
Tehran, and culminated in
Spain. There were a total of 30 matches played over two months, of which 20 were won, 7 were drawn and there were only 3 defeats. The star of this tour was
Alberto Gallardo, who scored 37 goals. The club shook up the market again when they signed the legendary Brazilian player, Didí in 1962, a world-famous footballer who had just won the 1962 World Cup title with his national team. Didí arrived to be the team's coach and implemented the attacking and possession style of play characteristic of Brazil's football. The Brazilian formed an eye-catching team that used to provide a show, however, he had to settle only for the runners-up in 1962 and 1963. After retiring from football, Didí returned to take over the technical direction of the club for 1967, again obtaining the runner-up position that year. The revenge came the following season, in which Sporting Cristal obtained the highest score along with the Juan Aurich club, due to this the champion of the Descentralizado 1968 had to be defined in an extra match in which the
brewers were victorious 2–1 thanks to two goals by Alberto Gallardo. In addition to its local titles, the young institution gained prestige for its international performances. During the 1962 edition until the 1969 edition of the
Copa Libertadores, Sporting Cristal went on a 17-game undefeated streak, the longest unbeaten streak in the Copa Libertadores history, winning 8 games, and drawing 9. The following years would bring new titles, the first of them in 1970, under the technical direction of the Argentine Vito Andrés Bártoli, in a tournament that was hard fought with Universitario de Deportes and that was defined in the Final Liguilla of the tournament. In this last stage, the Cristal had the best performance and the highest accumulated score, thus winning a new title. Their last match was against Juan Aurich, defeating them 4–2.Of the 32 games played that year, the team won 18, drew 9 and lost 5. Sporting Cristal changed its shirt color from blue to light blue. They are known as "Los Celestes". During a brief period between 1978 and 1981, they again used blue shirts. In 1982 they returned to light blue as the color of the club. The 1990s were the most successful decade as they claimed 4 national titles (including 3 in a row) with coach
Juan Carlos Oblitas. Under Oblitas, the Cristal won the 1991, 1994 and 1995 domestic league. Then, guided by
Sergio Markarián head coach they won 1996 league. By 1997, the team, led by
Uruguayan coach
Sergio Markarián, reached the finals of the
Copa Libertadores, where they faced the Brazilian club
Cruzeiro. The first leg was a home game, in which they ended in a scoreless draw; in the second leg, they lost 1–0. This is the closest Team Peru has come to the Copa Libertadores Final since 1972, when
Universitario had a similar fate playing against
Independiente. The club stayed on the top spots of the national tournament during most of the 2000s and gained qualification to the
Copa Libertadores eight years in a row from 2000 to 2007. It would only win two titles during the decade which were obtain in 2002 and 2005 with many notable players as
Sergio Leal,
Jorge Soto and
Luis Alberto Bonnet. However, during the
2007, Cristal would come four points away from relegation. It would make a comeback during the
2008 season and qualify to the Copa Libertadores once again. In 2009, the Primera División Peruana would change the tournament structured which caused Sporting Cristal to have mediocre results for the next few years into the new decade. After a seven-year dry spell it would become the national champion once more during the
2012 season when it defeated
Real Garcilaso in the finals. They qualified to the
2013 Copa Libertadores where they did not pass the tournament's group stage. In the 2013 season, they played on the same liguilla as Real Garcilaso and fought for a place in the final up to the last match of the season in which they finished third and qualified for the
2014 Copa Libertadores once more. In the 2018 season, they conquered another historical feat, they became the best Team Peru in the Historic Table during the Professional Era (1966–2018). As of 2018, they surpassed Universitario for the first spot, 3264 points to Universitario's 3236 points. In the 2020 season, after a bad start in Liga 1 and Copa Libertadores, the club announced the departure of coach
Manuel Barreto, days later Roberto Mosquera returned as technical director after 7 years. Sporting Cristal was unable to play in Phase 3 of the
2020 Copa Libertadores, as they lost 4–0 to
Barcelona S.C., but won 2–1 in Lima, as an aggregate result of 5–2 against them. On 12 March, the Torneo Apertura was stopped due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Peru. When the competition returned, the team finished in third place. In the Clausura Tournament they won group A and qualified for the definition against
Ayacucho FC, they would be defeated by the
foxes in the penalty kicks. The Cristal, for being first in the accumulated table, would also play the semifinal with Ayacucho, in the first match they would win 2–1 and in the second they would win again with a resounding 4–1 qualifying for the national final. Sporting Cristal would achieve its twentieth title by beating
Universitario in an aggregate of 3–2 in the final. == Stadium ==