Meet the Sunday League Team Boasting Over 1,800 English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for Wythenshawe Vets during a 6-2 victory versus their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you boost a outstanding veteran squad who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Sign a raft of ex- professionals that have performed at the top tier of club and global football as you target additional silverware.

A Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current roster.

222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

The team Vets Over-35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.

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

This high-profile roster also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have secured fifteen significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Players

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

Ireland began playing for the team in pre-season this summer through good friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse featured for Everton from 2016 and 2020

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

"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a

Katherine Klein
Katherine Klein

Elara Vance is a seasoned sports analyst with over a decade of experience in betting markets, specializing in data-driven predictions.