Introduce this Weekend League Team Featuring 1,800 English Top Division Matches

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

What can you enhance a excellent experienced side who have secured back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 games?

Recruit a raft of ex- pro players that have competed at the top level of club football and international soccer as you pursue more trophies.

A Manchester club has an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former top-flight players in their present roster.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Division.

Their roster this season includes nine ex- top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.

This elite team also contains over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

They include one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home game versus defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour first-half triple.

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

Collectively, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen big honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned six Irish appearances, netting 4 scores

Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this summer through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"My mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy 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 movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

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

Dreamlike' Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

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

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

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

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a

Anna Turner
Anna Turner

A digital strategist with over a decade of experience in tech marketing and content creation across European markets.