Discover the Weekend League Team Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans in a six-two victory against their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you enhance a stellar veteran squad who have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?

Sign a group of former professionals that have performed at the highest level of club and global football as you target further trophies.

A Greater Manchester club has an amateur vets team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their active roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps

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

Their lineup this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite matches.

This star-studded team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

They include one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Famous Names and International Stars

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

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Top Division title last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a

Steven Miller
Steven Miller

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