Discover this Weekend Division Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The bench for the team Veterans in a 6-2 triumph against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you boost a outstanding experienced team who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from 32 matches?

Sign a raft of ex- pro players that have performed at the highest tier of club and global football as you pursue further silverware.

A Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their active roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

The squad list this campaign includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The star-studded roster also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for ÂŁ9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

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

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of about ÂŁ123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Republic of Ireland caps, netting 4 scores

Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at defender.

"It's a little different but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

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

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

Unreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a

John Giles
John Giles

A tech enthusiast and business strategist with over a decade of experience in digital transformation and startup consulting.