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The Club Sporting Cristal is a Peruvian sports club located in the city of Lima, best known for its football team. It was founded on 13 December 1955 in the Rímac district by engineer Richard Bentín Mujica and his wife Esther Grande de Bentín, stockholders of the Peruvian brewery Backus and Johnston. The club and the brewery have been closely linked since its inception, and it is for this reason that it is popularly known as los Cerveceros ("the brewers").
The team has played in the Peruvian Primera División since 1956, where it obtained the title that year. Due to this achievement, the Cristal is often referred to as "El club que nació campeón". Since their first participation, they have won the league title 19 times and are one of the few teams in Peru to have never been relegated from the top division. Sporting Cristal is also the first Peruvian team to have been crowned tricampeóns, successively winning the 1994, 1995, and 1996 seasons. In 1997, they were runners-up of the Copa Libertadores, losing the final to Brazilian side Cruzeiro. The Cristal holds the longest undefeated streak in the tournament; 17 games without suffering a loss.
The Cristal has a heated rivalry with Universitario de Deportes. One of the main reasons for the enmity between the two sides is the series of transfers of Universitario's star players to los Celestes. The club also has rivalries with Club Alianza Lima, Deportivo Municipal, and the Sport Boys.
Sporting Cristal plays its home games at the Estadio Alberto Gallardo. They play at the Estadio Nacional for international competitions such as the Libertadores or Sudamericana. The Estadio Nacional is also the venue for matches against Universitario and Alianza Lima.
In addition to football, the club has teams specializing in Esports, futsal, women's football, and volleyball.
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. 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 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.
Sporting Cristal is characterized by the practice of the colorful game, even stipulating it as a condition in the employment contracts of its coaches. Alianza Lima, in the same way, usually plays an offensive style game, so the matches played between these teams are among the most attractive in the tournament, the matches are usually very even. Both teams have defined championships on several occasions, the first of them was in 1961, when Sporting Cristal beat the Alliance 2-0 and was crowned champion. Highlighting the final of the 2018 Torneo Descentralizado, where the Cristal won 1-4 away and 3-0 at home, obtaining a resounding aggregate result of 7-1 in favor of the brewers,being the largest final in the history of Peruvian football. The last national championship played between the two teams was in 2021.
Sporting Cristal got its biggest result against Alianza Lima in 1960, when it beat them 5-0. On the other hand, their biggest defeat occurred in 2004, when they lost 5-0; although the sky-blue team played on that occasion with an alternate team. In 1987, Sporting Cristal got its biggest win ever against Alianza on the road, defeating them 4-0 at the Estadio Alejandro Villanueva.That Alianza Lima squad was known as the foals. In the Copa Libertadores the biggest results were two: In 1995 there was a 3-0 win in favor of the Rimense team,while in 1978 they lost by the score of 4-1.
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).
| National (League) ! scope=col | Primera División | 20 | 15 | 1956, 1961, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2005, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 | 1962, 1963, 1967, 1973, 1977, 1989, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2015, 2021, 2024 |
| Half-year / Short tournament (League) ! scope=col | Torneo Apertura | 4 | 8 | 1997, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2016, 2019, 2023, 2024 | |
| National (Cups) ! scope=col | Copa Bicentenario | 1 | — | — | |
| International (Cups) ! scope=col | Copa Libertadores | — | 1 | — | |
| International (Cup) ! scope=col | Copa El Gráfico-Perú | 2 | 1 | 1999, 2003 | 2002–II |
| National (League) ! scope=col | Torneo de Promoción y Reserva | 4 | 1 | 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023 | 2017 |
| Half-year / Short tournament (League) ! scope=col | Copa Modelo Centenario | 1 | — | 2016 | — |
| { class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" | |
| Blas Loredo Bascones | 1956–59 |
| Alfonso Raul Villegas | 1960–63 |
| Augusto Moral Santisteban | 1964 |
| Cesar Freundt | 1965 |
| Augusto Galvez Velarde | 1966–71 |
| Josue Grande Fernandez | 1972–79 |
| Jaime Noriega Zegarra | 1980–88 |
| Federico Cúneo de La Piedra | 1989–93 |
| Francisco Lombardi Oyarzub | 1994–95 |
| Alfonso Grados Carraro | 1996–99 |
| Francisco Lombardi Oyarzub | 2000–01 |
| Jaime Noriega Bentin | 2002–04 |
| François Mujica Serelle | 2005–10 |
| Felipe Cantuarias Salaverry | 2011–14 |
| Federico Cúneo de La Piedra | 2014–2018 |
| Carlos Benavides | 2019 |
| Cristian Emmerich | 2019– |
| Torneo Apertura | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 22 | 20 | 23 | 7th | |
| Torneo Clausura | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 27 | 24 | 19 | 9th | |
| Torneo Apertura | 15 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 27 | 7 | 32 | 1st | 1st |
| Torneo Clausura | 15 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 37 | 14 | 24 | 5th | |
| Torneo Clausura | 17 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 31 | 20 | 31 | 3rd | |
| Torneo Clausura | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 9 | 23 | 2nd |
| { class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" | ||
| 1956–58 | Luis Tirado | |
| 1958–59 | César Viccino | |
| 1960 | Carlos Peucelle | |
| 1960 | Víctor Pasache | |
| 1961–62 | Juan Honores | |
| 1962 | Víctor Pasache | |
| 1962–64 | Waldir Pereira "Didí" | |
| 1964–66 | Alberto Terry | |
| 1966 | Yaldo Barbalho | |
| 1967–69 | Waldir Pereira "Didí" | |
| 1969 | Víctor Pasache | |
| 1969–70 | Vito Andrés "Sabino" Bártoli | |
| 1971 | Rudi Gutendorf | |
| 1972–74 | Marcos Calderón | |
| 1974 | Rafael Asca | |
| 1974–75 | Eloy Campos | |
| 1976 | Juan Honores | |
| 1976 | Víctor Pasache | |
| 1976–77 | Diego Agurto | |
| 1977 | Alberto Gallardo | |
| 1977–78 | Roque Máspoli | |
| 1978 | Alberto Gallardo | |
| 1978–79 | José Fernández | |
| 1979–81 | Marcos Calderón | |
| 1981–82 | Alberto Gallardo | |
| 1982–83 | César Cubilla | |
| 1984 | José Chiarella | |
| 1985 | Alberto Gallardo | |
| 1985 | José del Castillo | |
| 1985–86 | Héctor Chumpitaz | |
| 1987–88 | Miguel Company | |
| 1988 | Óscar Montalvo | |
| 1988–89 | Alberto Gallardo | |
| 1989–90 | Oscar López Oscar Cavallero | |
| 1990 | Fernando Mellán | |
| 1990 | Eugenio Jara | |
| 1990–92 | Juan Carlos Oblitas | |
| 1993 | José Carlos Amaral |
| + | ||
| 1993–95 | Juan Carlos Oblitas | |
| 1996 | José Luis Carbone | |
| 1996 | Roberto Mosquera | |
| 1996–97 | Sergio Markarián | |
| 1997–98 | Miguel Ángel Arrué | |
| 1998 | Luis García | |
| 1998–99 | Franco Navarro | |
| 1999 | Rodolfo Motta | |
| 1999–01 | Juan Carlos Oblitas | |
| 2001 | Horacio Magalhaes | |
| 1 Jan 2002 – 31 Dec 2002 | Paulo Autuori | |
| 2003 | Renê Weber | |
| 2003–04 | Wilmar Valencia | |
| 2004 | Eduardo Asca | |
| 2004–05 | Edgardo Bauza | |
| 22 May 2005 – 17 Dec 2006 | José del Solar | |
| 1 Jan 2007 – 5 May 2007 | Jorge Sampaoli | |
| 2007 | Walter Fiori | |
| 1 July 2007 – 31 Dec 2009 | Juan Carlos Oblitas | |
| 1 Jan 2010 – 9 Dec 2010 | Víctor Rivera | |
| 21 Dec 2010 – 19 April 2011 | Guillermo Rivarola | |
| 20 April 2011 – 23 Nov 2011 | Juan Reynoso | |
| 23 Nov 2011 – 31 Dec 2011 | Francisco Melgar | |
| 1 Jan 2012 – 7 Aug 2013 | Roberto Mosquera | |
| 7 Aug 2013 – 18 Aug 2013 | Francisco Melgar (int.) | |
| 18 Aug 2013 – 19 Dec 2013 | Claudio Vivas | |
| 1 Jan 2014–15 | Daniel Ahmed | |
| 4 Jan 2016 – 19 Dec 2016 | Mariano Soso | |
| 4 Jan 2017 – 25 Jun 2017 | José del Solar | |
| 25 Jun 2017 – Dic 3, 2017 | Pablo Zegarra | |
| 4 Jan 2018 – Dic 18, 2018 | Mario Salas | |
| 7 Jan 2019 – 5 Feb 2019 | Alexis Mendoza | |
| 8 Feb 2019 – 10 Sep 2019 | Claudio Vivas | |
| 8 Feb 2019 – 10 Sep 2019 | Manuel Barreto | |
| 23 Feb 2020 – 8 Nov 2022 | Roberto Mosquera | |
| 9 Nov 2022 – 11 Nov 2023 | Tiago Nunes | |
| 24 Nov 2023 – 31 May 2024 | Enderson Moreira | |
| 17 Jun 2024 – 10 Apr 2025 | Guillermo Farré | |
| 16 Apr 2025 – | Paulo Autuori | |
| National (League) ! scope=col | Liga Femenina | 2 | 1 | 1998, 1999 | 1997 |
| International (Cup) ! scope=col | Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol Femenino | 1 | — | 2000 | — |
| Regional (League) ! scope=col | Torneo Femenino Extraordinario Sub-20 | 1 | — | 2024 | — |
| National (League) ! scope=col | Liga Nacional Superior de Voleibol | — | 1 | — | 2013–14 |
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