Discover this Weekend League Squad With 1,800 Top-Flight Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for the team Vets in a 6-2 triumph versus Collegiate Old Boys on October 19th (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you boost a excellent veteran squad who have secured back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of former pro players that have competed at the top level of club football and global football as you aim for further silverware.

One Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

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

The lineup this season includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

The star-studded squad also includes over 220 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have won 15 significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Famous Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Irish caps, netting 4 scores

Ireland began turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse played for Everton between 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

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

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who come and see are happy and to give a day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

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

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.

"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"We really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a

Jennifer Clark
Jennifer Clark

A digital content strategist and freelance writer with a passion for storytelling and emerging tech trends.

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