Meet the Sunday Division Team With 1,800 Premier League Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Vets in a 6-2 win against their opponents on October 19th (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a stellar experienced squad that have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?

Sign a group of ex- pro players who have performed at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you target additional trophies.

A Manchester side fields an amateur vets team with nine former Premier League players in their current lineup.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.

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

This high-profile roster also includes over 220 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight players have secured 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He won 6 Republic of Ireland caps, netting 4 scores

Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make a day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

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

Unreal Scenario

In addition to the forward'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 Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

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

"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

"I think I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.

"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

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

"We scored 1-0 up and had a

Sergio Flores
Sergio Flores

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