Al-Ittihad officially announced Friday the signing of German Jens Vissinger to take over coaching of the first football team next season, succeeding Portuguese Sergio Conceição. The 'Riyadiya Breaking' account had reported Saturday that the Japanese Gamba Osaka coach, aged 38, was on the threshold of the Jeddah club. 'Riyadiya' also informed from private sources that the six returning from loan – Marwan Al-Sahafi, Abdul Ilah Hawsawi, Fawaz Al-Saqour, Muath Faqihi, Spaniard Unai Hernández, and Argentine Mateo Borel – are awaiting Vissinger's decision on their continuation or not. Al-Ittihad began its preparations for the new season Tuesday under the leadership of Saudi Hassan Khalifa before departing for Marbella, Spain on July 14 for an external camp lasting until the 31st of the same month before returning to Jeddah. Vissinger started his coaching career eight seasons ago, after injury ended his professional playing career with Borussia Mönchengladbach, and turned to working as an assistant coach for the reserve team for two seasons 2019-2021, before moving to Dutch PSV as assistant to his compatriot Roger Schmidt 2021-2022, then continued his journey as assistant with the latter at Benfica 2022-2024. In early June 2025, he worked as an assistant with his compatriot Thomas Letsch at Austrian Salzburg in the 2025 Club World Cup, staying for about five months, until he announced his contract with Gamba Osaka in January 2026 as first-team coach. The AFC Cup 2, hosted at Al-Awwal Park Stadium in Riyadh on May 16, was the first official tournament Vissinger won as coach with Gamba Osaka, when he defeated Al-Nassr in the final 1-0. Vissinger, as assistant coach, won the Cup and Super Cup titles with PSV, and the League and Super Cup titles with Benfica. Al-Ittihad is expected to start the new season competitions by facing UAE's Al-Jazira on August 11 in Abu Dhabi, in the AFC Champions League Elite playoff.