Sport Boys

Foundation

The club was founded on 28 July 1927, by a group of young enthusiasts from El Callao who got together to fulfill the dream of a very important local football fan Gualberto Lizárraga to start a football club. The day before Peru's independence day, 27 July, they held a meeting and at midnight, the group sang the National Anthem. Afterwards, they declared the club founded and named Lizárraga president and unanimously voted for the club name to be Sport Boys Association.

Golden age

The team participated in the Provincial League of Lima and Callao from 1929 to 1932 (Third Champion 1930, Second 1931 and runner-up in the Intermediate Division 1932), managing to ascend to the first category of national football, called the Honor Division at that time. A few years after being promoted to the Peruvian Primera División, Sport Boys won their first national league, winning the 1935 Peruvian Primera División undefeated and having a lead of eight points. Two years later, Sport Boys won the First Division again in 1937. The club were runners-up of the tournament the year after, losing to Universitario. They went five years without a single trophy, but won the national league again in 1942.

In 1951, Sport Boys won their first national league titles in the professional era, and their fourth overall. A year earlier, they were runners-up in the tournament. In 1958, Sport Boys appointed Marcos Calderón as the clubs coach. He would bring Sport Boys to win their fifth title in 1958, and became coach of the Peru national team In the 1970s, bringing the team to win the 1975 Copa América. In 1952, Sport Boys got second place in the First Division.

After finishing second place in the 1966 Torneo Descentralizado, Sport Boys qualified for the new created Copa Libertadores in 1967 for the first time but was eliminated in the first round. The club won their last First Division title in 1984 and has since not won any. Before 1984, the club came second in the First Division five times, in 1952, 1959, 1960, 1966 and 1976. As a result of winning the 1985 Torneo Descentralizado, Sport Boys qualified for the Copa Libertadores once again in 1985. This was the clubs best run in an international tournament, reaching the Quarter-finals. They previously reached the quarter-finals in 1977, after finishing second in the 1976 Torneo Descentralizado.

Downfall

Sport Boys was going through an economic crisis and a long drought of titles. The club was relegated to the Peruvian Segunda División in 1987 and stayed for two years, until they won the 1989 tournament and got promoted back to the First Division. They won the Torneo Regional in 1990 and qualified for the 1991 Copa Libertadores. Sport Boys qualified for the next edition as well. They were eliminated in the first round in both editions.

Recent years

The last time Sport Boys became champions of the Primera División Peruana was 1984. Since then they have had a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Some of the ups have been being runners-up in the 1990 and 1991 First Division after having won the Segunda División Peruana to gain promotion. In 1999 the Sport Boys qualified for the Copa CONMEBOL, and in 2001 for the 2001 Copa Libertadores. Since then that team has had more downs than ups by avoiding relegation to the Segunda División Peruana by winning an end of season playoff match that went down to a penalty shootout against José Gálvez in the 2006 season. During 2008 their campaign was worse than the 2007 campaign leaving the Sport Boys in the bottom of the standings for most of the Apertura tournament. Financial issues were also haunting the club in 2008, so severe that they have not been able to pay their players from March 2008. Some players like midfielder Montenegro have had to do taxi work at night to be able to support their families. That year they were relegated to the Segunda División Peruana but on 17 October 2009, after a great season, Sport Boys went on to beat Cobresol 3–2 for the Segunda División Peruana finals to go back into the Primera Division Peruana, where it played for three seasons before been inundated with economical problems, and then finishing 15th during the 2012 season which relegated them back to the Peruvian Segunda Division.

Sport Boys returned to the Peruvian Primera División after winning the 2017 Peruvian Segunda División. They placed 14th on the aggregate table on the brink of Relegation but were ahead of the relegation zone by 11 points and again in 2019. The club classified for the 2022 Copa Sudamericana, their first participation in the tournament. They did not advance past the First Round.