Introduce the Weekend League Team Featuring Over 1,800 English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for Wythenshawe Vets in a 6-2 victory versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a stellar experienced team that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of ex- professionals that have played at the top level of club football and international football as you pursue more honors.

One Greater Manchester club fields an amateur vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their present squad.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Division.

Their squad list this campaign features 9 ex- top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League games.

The star-studded roster also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

They include one forward, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home game against reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Well-Known Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won six Republic of Ireland appearances, netting four goals

Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse featured for the club between 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to give a day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

"The running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

'Surreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.

"I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we can't wait for the second match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a

Arthur Combs
Arthur Combs

A tech journalist with over a decade of experience covering AI, cybersecurity, and consumer electronics, passionate about demystifying complex innovations.