Meet this Weekend League Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for Wythenshawe Vets in a six-two win versus their opponents on October 19th (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you improve a excellent veteran side that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Recruit a raft of former professionals that have played at the highest level of club football and international soccer as you aim for further honors.

A Greater Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with 9 former top-flight players in their active lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.

The roster this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite matches.

This elite squad also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home game versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.

Famous Figures and International Stars

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

Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this season through close friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

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

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

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

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

"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

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

"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a

Amanda Santana
Amanda Santana

Lena Visser is a Dutch new media artist specializing in interactive installations that blend wave patterns with audiovisual technology.