Discover the Weekend Division Squad Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The bench for the team Veterans in a 6-2 victory against their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a outstanding experienced team that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of ex- professionals that have played at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you pursue additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester team fields an amateur vets team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their present roster.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

The lineup this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League games.

The high-profile roster also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this campaign also features former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned six Republic of Ireland caps, netting 4 goals

Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

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

"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

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

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"That running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

Dreamlike' Experience

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.

"I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English caps.

"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a

Daniel Keller
Daniel Keller

Elara Vance is a certified nutritionist and wellness coach with over a decade of experience in holistic health practices and supplement research.