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

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans in a 6-2 victory versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a outstanding veteran side that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 games?

Bring in a collection of former professionals who have competed at the highest level of club football and global football as you pursue additional honors.

One Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their active roster.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Caps

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

Their roster this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite appearances.

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

The squad include one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a half-hour first-half triple.

The roster for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have secured fifteen significant trophies and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won 6 Republic of Ireland caps, netting four scores

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those fans who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - 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.

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

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

Unreal Experience

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

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

Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

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

"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

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

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a

Felicia Gonzales
Felicia Gonzales

Elara is a seasoned sports analyst with a passion for data-driven betting strategies and helping others succeed.