Introduce the Weekend League Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches

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

How do you improve a outstanding experienced team that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Recruit a raft of former pro players that have performed at the highest tier of club and international football as you pursue further honors.

One Manchester team fields an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their active roster.

222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Tier.

The squad list this campaign boasts nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 elite games.

This star-studded team also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

They include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger 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.

In total, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Famous Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He won 6 Irish appearances, scoring four scores

Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

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

"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The people who come 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 pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

Dreamlike' Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling 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 regular guys.

"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a

Crystal Drake
Crystal Drake

A quantum physicist and tech writer with over a decade of experience in quantum algorithm development and science communication.