Khalid Al-Ghannam, the winger of Al-Ettifaq first football team, joined his teammates in the pre-season camp on Monday in Alicante, Spain. This comes after negotiations between Al-Ettifaq and Al-Ittihad regarding the international winger's transfer from the former to the latter during the summer transfer window were halted. The player's arrival coincided with his teammates performing recovery exercises, after Sunday's 3-2 win over Malaysian Johor in the second friendly match of the camp. According to sources close to Al-Riyadiya, Australian coach Arthur Papas preferred to reduce physical load, so he exempted the players from the evening session, with field preparations set to resume on Tuesday. After the end of Saudi participation in the 2026 World Cup, the national team players, including Al-Ghannam, received a special leave. With its conclusion, the player joined the team. The negotiations for the international winger's transfer to Al-Ittihad were halted, despite reaching advanced stages in recent days. According to what Al-Riyadiya published on Friday, quoting private sources, the halt is due to Al-Ittihad not obtaining final approval from German Jens Fießinger, the new coach of his team, to go ahead with the deal, coinciding with Al-Ettifaq's insistence on the required value for selling the contract, set at $10 million.