Meet this Weekend League Team With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for Wythenshawe Veterans during a six-two triumph versus their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you boost a excellent veteran squad who have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?

Sign a raft of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest level of club and global football as you target more trophies.

A Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their active squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign features nine ex- top-flight players, with a combined 1,801 top-flight matches.

This star-studded team also contains over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have won 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned six Republic of Ireland appearances, netting four scores

Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this season through good mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

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

"It was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

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

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

"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

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

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

"Now we can't wait for the return match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a

George Murphy
George Murphy

A seasoned gaming analyst with over a decade of experience in online casino trends and player strategy optimization.