Meet this Sunday Division Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for the team Vets in a six-two triumph against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you boost a outstanding veteran squad that have claimed consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have played at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you aim for further trophies.

A Greater Manchester side has an amateur vets team with nine former Premier League players in their active squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier.

Their squad list this season boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League games.

The star-studded squad also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 global caps.

The squad include one forward, who scored 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major honors and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Republic of Ireland appearances, scoring 4 goals

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
He played for Everton between 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

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

"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

Dreamlike' Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

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

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

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

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a

Gabrielle Johnson
Gabrielle Johnson

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