Discover the Weekend Division Club Featuring 1,800 English Top Division Matches

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

What do you boost a outstanding veteran team that have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of former pro players who have competed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you aim for additional silverware.

One Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances

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

Their roster this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.

This elite squad also includes over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have won 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Figures and Global Players

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

Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

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

Unreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

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

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

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

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

"Our side competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a

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