[8][9] 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.

The new club from the Rímac ward debuted in 1956 in the professional Primera Division and won their first national title that same year.

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 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 Cristal'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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

[11] 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.

[12][13] 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.

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.

Sporting Cristal has had longstanding rivalries with Universitario, and Alianza Lima, as these teams are considered the big three of Peruvian football.

The match played between Sporting Cristal and Universitario de Deportes is one of the most important rivalries in Peru, both clubs are the ones that won the largest number of titles since the Peruvian Primera División began to be played from 1966, giving 18 titles for Sporting Cristal and 16 for Universitario, this succession of championships made there be a great rivalry between both teams,being sporadically called as the Modern Classic of Peruvian Football, although the name was not widespread (before it was associated with the matches between Universitario and Deportivo Municipal).