Discover this Weekend League Club Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans in a 6-2 triumph versus 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

What can you improve a outstanding experienced squad that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a collection of ex- professionals who have played at the elite level of club football and international football as you target more silverware.

A Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their present lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

The team Veterans Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.

The lineup this campaign boasts nine former top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight games.

The high-profile squad also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

They include one forward, who netted 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for Β£9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have won fifteen significant honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately Β£123 million.

Well-Known Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Republic of Ireland appearances, netting four goals

Ireland began turning out for the side in preseason this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

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

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

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

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

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

'Surreal Experience

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.

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

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

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

"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

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

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a

Ray Bailey
Ray Bailey

A passionate gaming journalist and esports analyst with over a decade of experience covering the industry.