Discover this Weekend Division Squad Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for the team Veterans during a six-two victory versus their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a excellent veteran side that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a raft of former professionals that have played at the elite level of club football and international soccer as you aim for more honors.

A Greater Manchester side has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

The roster this campaign features nine former Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 Premier League appearances.

This elite team also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.

They feature one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have secured fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned six Republic of Ireland appearances, scoring 4 goals

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this summer through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse played for the club from 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

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

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.

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

"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a

Ryan Taylor
Ryan Taylor

A digital futurist and VR developer with over a decade of experience in immersive technology and metaverse design.