Ittihad FC - Present-day

Present-day

Ittihad's success is not limited only to football, but also in basketball, water polo, table tennis, volleyball, and swimming, amongst others. In total, Ittihad has won 661 trophies. However, football remains the primary sport.

Ittihad is now based in Sahafa street, Mushrefa district, in east Jeddah, where they have a large sports complex. Senior teams play official games at the municipal sports centre, in the south of the city, while youth teams play at the club.

The club is renowned throughout the region for its fans. They are particularly famous for their loyalty and chants, which are copied by many others. The head of the Ittihad fan club, Saleh al-Qarni, even records studio versions of the year's chants which are widely sold in Jeddah and beyond.

In December 2006, the club offered what was thought to be the most lucrative deal in Arabian football to Portuguese midfielder Luís Figo. It was said that Luís Figo will join the club on July 1, 2007 after his current contract with Internazionale expires. However, not long after, Figo's current club, Internazionale released report that Figo had yet to sign a contract with Al-Ittihad and will not be joining. Figo has since extended his contract at Inter until the end of the 2007–2008 season citing that the terms of the agreement were not kept and thus voided the contract.

In January 2010, the club convened an extraordinary club meeting after losing their 4th game of the 2009/2010 season 1–2 to Al-Nasr. A decision was made to sack the head coach Gabriel Calderón and replace him with local coach Hassan Khalifa assisted by former striker Hamzah Idris. On January 27, 2010, the club hired Argentinean coach Enzo Trossero to take over the reins of the team.

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