Discover this Sunday Division Team With Over 1,800 Premier League Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Vets in a 6-2 victory against their opponents 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 experienced team who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals who have played at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you aim for additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 former Premier League players in their present squad.

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

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

The roster this campaign includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight games.

The star-studded roster also contains 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global appearances.

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

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen significant trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won 6 Republic of Ireland appearances, scoring 4 scores

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side in pre-season this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus 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 played for the club from 2016 and 2020

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

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

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

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

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

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

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

"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a

John Jones
John Jones

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