[4] After spending their formative years building a squad, the club made their first mark by lifting the King's Cup trophy in 1961.

Al-Hilal won the King's Cup again in 1964, with a penalty shootout victory over two-time Asian champions Al Ittihad.

With the success, a number of players and coaches from outside Saudi Arabia joined the club in the 1970s, including Brazilian legends Mario Zagallo and Rivellino.

Ampaiai in the eighties brought about a new dawn of success to the riyadh giants, with group of talented homegrown players such as the charismatic figurehead defender Saleh Al-Nu'eimeh who captained both Al Hilal and the Saudi National Football Team, together with the promotion of the extremely gifted player maker Yousuf Al-Thunayan and the young and prolific forward Sami Al-Jaber.

The club continued to churn out talent from its academy with players such as Nawaf Al-Temyat, Mohammed Al-Shalhoub, Abdallah Al-Jamaan, Ahmad Al-Dokhi as well as Zambian defender Elijah Litana.

Al Hilal's continental spoil's during this period defined the clubs identity, decadence and standing in the Asian continent for years to come.

Historically, since their first meeting, Al Hilal/Al Ittihad matches have always been aggressive and passion filled spectacles that drew huge crowds due to both teams being from the two major Saudi cities of Riyadh and Jeddah.

Al Hilal is based in Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia, in addition to having traditional Najdi values the club is most commonly supported by the upper and middle class and also enjoyed royal attention.

While on the other hand, Al-Ittihad is based in the port city of Jeddah and is commonly supported by the lower and middle class as well as non-Saudi natives giving it the nickname "the people's club".

The pinnacle moment of the era was in the 2007–08 season when Al Ittihad was leading the table the whole season with Al Hilal always right behind in second, the final match day pitted both teams against each other in the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah with Al-Ittihad needing a draw at the minimum to clinch the league title at home.

What made the occasion even more special is that the opposite outcome happened the previous season when Al Ittihad clinched the league title in the last minutes.

Under his management Al Hilal tactically adopted a very attacking style, combining an already talented local group of players with star foreign players such as the versatile South Korean right back Lee Young-pyo, the powerful and dominant defensive midfielder Mirel Rădoi, the speedy Swedish winger Christian Wilhelmsson and the technically gifted Brazilian attacking midfielder Thiago Neves.

After their back-to-back league titles and generally consistent success in the domestic front, Al Hilal always seemed to come up short in their continental pursuit since their last triumph in the 1999–2000 campaign.

Adding to an already aging local core and departing key players, Al Hilal was in a transition period to rebuild the team that was able to challenge domestically and in the Champions league.

At the start of the 2016–17 season a string of bad results caused Gustavo Matosas to be sacked and replaced by Ramón Díaz.

Diaz's reorganised the tactical shape and style of play in which the team was engaging with as well as the conditioning his players to quickly grasp his philosophy.

Taking advantage of the fact that throughout the generations Al Hilal's success largely came from academy players as well as key signings, which the squad already possessed but the group was not in sync or able to reach their true potential.

The managerial replacement radically changed the team's performance by playing possession-based attacking football which the aforementioned players turned out to be very adept to.

During the 2019 Champions League campaign Al Hilal produced a dominating and exciting performance in the competition to reach the final midway through the season.

They successfully took a revenge and won 3–0 on aggregate 1–0 at home and 2–0 away, ending a nineteen-year wait for the Asian crown, Bafetimbi Gomis was also the tournaments top scorer and MVP.

Three days later in the quarter finals Al Hilal faced Iran's Foolad in a highly physical match that ended in a 1–0 win with Marega scoring a goal in 87th minute.

On 15 August 2023, Al Hilal signed world renowned player Neymar for a record breaking Saudi Pro League transfer fee of 90 million euros plus add-ons.

[14] Al Hilal also went on to sign more European league players, including Kalidou Koulibaly, Rúben Neves, Sergej Milinković-Savić, Malcom, Yassine Bounou and Aleksandar Mitrović.

Later throughout the season, Neymar suffered an ACL injury thus seeing the club signing Renan Lodi under the foreign quota slot.

In 2022, Al Hilal Football Club introduced a major redesign of their logo, signaling a shift from their previous emblem to a more modern and simplified design.

This emblem also included the full text of the club's name, "Al Hilal," and the year of its founding, adding layers of historical context and a classic aesthetic to the crest.

The previous design's rich detailing and the inclusion of the founding year offered a sense of tradition and heritage, but the new logo adopts a more streamlined and contemporary approach.

The redesigned logo is limited to a blue and white color scheme, which helps in creating a cleaner and more distinctive visual identity.

[15] This modernized logo not only simplifies the club's branding but also enhances its visual impact, making it more recognizable and aligned with current design trends.

The focus on minimalism and the strategic use of color and space ensure that the new logo is both striking and versatile, suitable for various applications from digital media to merchandise.