The club was founded on 11 May 1925 after a general meeting under the chairmanship of Chedly Boujemla, Ali Laârbi and Ahmed Zeglaoui, at the headquarters of the Association of the ancient French-Arab School in Laroussi Zarouk Street, in the heart of the old town of Sousse.

Club members eventually settled on Etoile Sportive du Sahel to reflect the goal of representing a broader region than Sousse alone.

This period saw the confirmation of great players like Habib Mougou, Sadok Soussi, Abdallah Ghomrasni, Abdelhamid Blal and Aleya Douik.

Habib Mougou has scored 25 goals to be the scorer of the championship, despite not winning the title of how they lost to Club Africain in the Tunisian Cup in the quarterfinals 3–0.

Berry remained in charge for the season, where ES Sahel won the league title and reached the Tunisian Cup final before losing to Stade Tunisien 2–0.

The 1961 season was catastrophic for ES Sahel after being defeated in the Cup from the quarter-final against Esperance 2–0 and the team which was in third place and competing for the title until the round 17 before being dissolved.

His rivalry with Esperance sportive de Tunis unleashes passions and excesses occur after a match lost in the quarterfinals of the Cup in 1961, against the rival of always (0–2).

The national authorities then decide to dissolve the club; the youth and sports directorate issued a statement indicating that the President of the Republic received, on 20 March at 5 pm, at his home in Monastir, the steering committee to inform his members of his deep dissatisfaction: that the incidents which occurred during the match in question are likely to feed the animosity and the hatred in the hearts of the young people and to sow discord among them ... As these incidents reached a such as the safety of citizens may be in danger, as the leaders of the association in question have not lived up to their duty and to bring all football officials in Tunisia to meditate on in this example, the President of the Republic has decided – in addition to ongoing legal proceedings – to dissolve the association of the Etoile Sportive du Sahel and to suspend its leaders and players.

Drenovac continued to lead the team to 1965 where they finished third in the league but withdrew from the cup early after the sudden defeat to AS Marsa 1–0 to end the five-year-old Yugoslav coach.

The coach won in the year following the league title and Adhouma ended the season with nine goals, but the team came out of the cup in the quarter-finals against Club Africain 1–0.

In 1973, ES Sahel entered the regional competition and won the Maghreb Champions Cup for the first time in his history after beating Algeria's club CR Belouizdad 2–0.

The following years have known that the team will continue to play the same way, but this has not been rewarded for winning the trophies despite finishing the season in first place in 1976, but was defeated in a playoff against Espérance de Tunis.

ES Sahel finished in the third place in the local championship and was defeated by JS Kairouan 1–0 in the Tunisian Cup in the round of 16 to leave early.

Coach Amor Dhib, who despite his failure in the Tunisian Cup, was forced to leave in the 16th round against Espérance 2–0, but managed to restore the local league to the team's coffers after a 14-year absence.

In 1990 the team finished the season in fourth place and also suffered a spectacular defeat in the 16th round of the Tunisian Cup in front of the Océano Club de Kerkennah 3–0.

In 1991, Faouzi Benzarti returned to coach the team and finished third, and reached the final of the cup before losing to Espérance 2–1 at El Menzah Stadium.

In the next season with the Serbian coach Ivica Todorov, the team won second place before being defeated in the Cup final against CS Hammam-Lif in the first match at the Stade 7 November in Radès which was opened for the 2001 Mediterranean Games.

In 2005, the team went out of the final round of the cup against Espérance on penalties and took second place in the tournament after equal points with CS Sfaxien before FIFA decided to settle for the latter.

Benzarti won the league title finally after finishing second in seven consecutive years despite the early exit in the Cup against CS Hammam-Lif on penalties in the quarter-finals.

In spite of the absence of the CAF Champions League this year, ES Sahel continued their performances surpassing Espérance in the first round 2–0, JS Kabylie, Al-Merrikh and Asante Kotoko in the group stage to find themselves in front of their compatriot CS Sfaxien in the final.

The Dutch coach Piet Hamberg also failed to emerge the team from the crisis after the early withdrawal of the 2010 CAF Confederation Cup and the third place in the league.

In February 2013, former Cameroon coach Denis Lavagne was appointed to lead the team to qualify for the playoff phase of the local championship and competed for the last round before finishing in third place.

The team signed with Serbian Dragan Cvetković, who did not stay in office more than a month after the catastrophic results of the 2014 CAF Confederation Cup by finishing last in the group to be replaced by coach Faouzi Benzarti.

As for the continent, the team played in the 2015 CAF Confederation Cup, surpassing Moroccan Raja Casablanca in the first round as they qualified for the semi-finals after passing Stade Malien and its compatriot Espérance and winning Al Ahly of Egypt and then beat Zamalek in the semi-finals in a match 5–1 for ESS before going beyond Orlando Pirates in the final to win the first African title since 2008 dedicated to his return to Africa and become the most capped CAF Cup team with 4 titles.

The team was eliminated from the quarterfinals of the Cup after a defeat against Espérance 1–0 and in the same year the team was unable to qualify for the group stage from the African Champions League after defeating Enyimba narrowly 4–3 to qualify for the 2016 CAF Confederation Cup, which was close to the maintenance of the title after the qualification the semi-final, surpassing in the Group FUS Rabat, Kawkab Marrakech and Al Ahly of Tripoli before coming out in front of TP Mazembe in the semi-finals.

The 2–0 victory over Club Africain in June 2019 was the last match held at the Stade Olympique de Sousse before its closure and the launch of its expansion, which coincided with the team's decline in results.

In terms of location, ESS are quite an isolated club, so games against US Monastir, ES Hammam-Sousse (just north of Sousse) and CS M'saken are considered local derbies.

Finally, the works of extension finished at the end of April, 2022 and the first game of the team back in its new 40,000-seater stadium was held on the 4th of May, 2022 against Club Sportif Sfaxien.

Taking the example of the European clubs, Étoile Sportive du Sahel has a forming and training center for players located in Sousse.

It consists of six football fields including two synthetic, a restaurant, a weight room, a 3-star hotel called "Star's Sport Residence" and a thalassotherapy center.