Meet this Weekend Division Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for Wythenshawe Vets in a six-two win versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you improve a outstanding experienced squad who have secured back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

Recruit a collection of former pro players that have played at the top level of club and international soccer as you target more honors.

A Greater Manchester club has an amateur veterans team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.

Their lineup this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 elite games.

The elite squad also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 significant trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned six Irish appearances, netting four scores

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

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

"A mate Stephen told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose 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 the club, he had his debut at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

Dreamlike' Feeling

Along with Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

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

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a

Jennifer Carson
Jennifer Carson

Lena Visser is a lifestyle writer passionate about sustainable living, DIY crafts, and sharing practical ideas for a greener home.