Meet the Weekend League Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The bench for the team Vets in a 6-2 victory versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How do you improve a excellent experienced team that have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a group of former professionals that have competed at the elite level of club and international football as you target further silverware.

One Manchester side fields an amateur vets squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

The team Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Division.

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

This high-profile roster also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 international caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have won 15 significant honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He won 6 Irish appearances, netting four goals

Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

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

"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.

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

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

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

"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a

Alexander Davis
Alexander Davis

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