Sanfrecce Hiroshima

1938–1991

The club was a former company team of Toyo Kogyo, Toyo Kogyo Soccer Club (東洋工業サッカー部) in 1938 and played in the semi-professional Japan Soccer League.

The club was an original founder ("Original Eight") of the now-disbanded Japan Soccer League (JSL) in 1965. They dominated the JSL's early years, winning the title 4 times in a row – a feat that was later equaled by Yomiuri SC/Verdy Kawasaki. The name change was made at Mazda SC (マツダSC) in 1981.

During the 1969 season, they participated in the 1969 Asian Club Championship, forerunner to today's AFC Champions League; at the time, the tournament was done in a single locale (in that year it was Bangkok, Thailand), and they ended up in third place, the first participation of a Japanese club in the continental tournament. This also cost them the league title to Mitsubishi/Urawa, and although they won another title in 1970, since then the club has been out of the running for the title, with exceptional seasons such as 1994 when they won runner-up.

The Toyo Industries that became the first JSL champions also completed the first double by taking the Emperor's Cup. They were also the first of three "Invincibles", undefeated champion clubs in Japan (the others were Mitsubishi in 1969 and Yamaha in 1987–88), although only Toyo completed a double.

Ogi Matsumoto and Yasuyuki Kuwahara went on to win the 1968 Olympic bronze medal for the Japan national team.

1992–present

When JSL disbanded and became the J.League in 1992, it dropped the company name and became Sanfrecce Hiroshima. Alongside JEF United Ichihara Chiba and Urawa Red Diamonds they co-founded both leagues ("Original Ten").

First league title

In 2002, Sanfrecce became the first former stage winner (first stage, 1994) to be relegated to the lower division, J2 League. But it only spent a year there, finishing second the very next season to regain promotion back to J1. The club finished 16th in the 2007 season and were relegated to J2 League after they were beaten by Kyoto Sanga in the promotion/relegation play-off. In the following season in 2008, Sanfrecce nevertheless won the J2 League title at the first attempt, having 84 points (a difference of 25 points with the runner-up clubs) with six matches left.

By virtue of earning fourth place in the 2009 season and Gamba Osaka retaining the Emperor's Cup, Sanfrecce qualified for the 2010 AFC Champions League where they were knocked out in the group stage.

Back-to-back league title

On 24 November 2012, Sanfrecce defeated Cerezo Osaka 4–1 to seal their first ever J1 league title with 64 points thus qualifying to the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup as host and also qualifying to the 2013 AFC Champions League. Three individual awards was given individually with Hajime Moriyasu winning the 'Manager of the Year' award and Hisato Satō winning both the 'Most Valuable Player' award and the 'Top Scorer' award with 22 goals. Sanfreece players Shusaku Nishikawa, Hiroki Mizumoto, Toshihiro Aoyama, Yojiro Takahagi and Hisato Satō was included in the 2012 'Best Eleven' of the season. Sanfreece then played in the FIFA Club World Cup play-off in December where Toshihiro Aoyama scored the only goal against OFC Champions League winners Auckland City to send the team to the quarter-finals. However, Sanfreece suffered a 2–1 defeat to CAF Champions League winners Al Ahly thus failing to qualified to the semi-finals and having the need to play for a 5th place where Sanfreece face AFC Champions League winners Ulsan Hyundai where the team won 3–2.

Sanfrecce then started off the 2013 season in the Japanese Super Cup on 23 February 2013 against 2012 Emperor's Cup winners Kashiwa Reysol. where Hisato Satō scored the only goal in the match to lift the cup. However, in the 2013 AFC Champions League, Sanfrecce suffered a rock bottom group stage finished with only 3 points thus being knock out. On 7 December 2013, Sanfrecce defeated Kashima Antlers 2–0, securing their second J1 League title with 63 points following a thrilling finish to the season which saw first-place Yokohama F. Marinos losing their final league game ending with 62 points, handing Sanfrecce the title. With their second consecutive title win, Sanfrecce became the second club to successfully defend their crown since Kashima Antlers in 2009. Sanfreecce then qualified to the 2014 AFC Champions League.

Sanfrecce started off the 2014 season on 22 February 2014 during the Japanese Super Cup against 2013 Emperor's Cup winners Yokohama F. Marinos where Gakuto Notsuda and Takuma Asano went on to score the goal to secure a 2–0 win. In the 2014 AFC Champions League, Sanfrecce finished as runners-up in the group stage thus seeing the club advance to the round of 16 for the first time in the club history. Sanfreecce was drawn against Australian club Western Sydney Wanderers where the match ended up in a 3–3 aggerate however, due to away goal rules, the club was knocked out to the eventual cup winners.

During the 2015 season proved to be a great year for Sanfrecce, finishing 1st in the 2nd half of the season, then finishing 1st overall, just 2 points above Urawa Red Diamonds, to win their third J1 League title thus qualifying and representing Japan in that year's FIFA Club World Cup. The club started off playing in the play-off round where they won against OFC Champions League winners Auckland City 2–0 thus qualifying to the quarter-finals facing off against CAF Champions League winners TP Mazembe where Sanfrecce won them 3–0 advancing to the semi-finals to play against the Copa Libertadores winners River Plate. The club ended up losing the match 1–0 where they would ended up playing for a 3rd placing match against Chinese side Guanzhou Evergrande where Sanfrecce won 2–1 to finished in third place.

After the three-year reign

In the 2018 season, after Sanfrecce progressively trailing towards a J1 League title, as it led the standings after Round 5, the club fell down to 2nd-place at the end of the season. The club saw Kawasaki Frontale win the league as Sanfrecce lost four of their last five league matches.