Meet this Weekend League Team Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches

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

How do you enhance a stellar veteran squad who have secured consecutive titles, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the highest level of club football and global football as you aim for additional silverware.

A Manchester side fields an amateur vets squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their current roster.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.

Their roster this season features 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 top-flight matches.

The high-profile team also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

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

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned six Irish appearances, netting 4 scores

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"My friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The 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 really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

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

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

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

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.

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

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we can't wait for the second match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a

Christina Hopkins
Christina Hopkins

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