Introduce the Weekend Division Club With 1,800 English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Veterans during a six-two win against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How do you boost a outstanding experienced team that have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a group of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you target more trophies.

A Manchester team has an amateur vets team with 9 former Premier League players in their present lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier.

The roster this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight games.

This elite roster also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their last home game versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Irish caps, netting four goals

Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"My friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 Premier League matches.

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

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

"Even 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 man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother 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 Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil up and had a

Kenneth Faulkner
Kenneth Faulkner

Elara Vance is an astrophysicist and science communicator with a passion for making complex space topics accessible to all audiences.

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