Discover this Sunday Division Club With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for Wythenshawe Veterans during a 6-2 win versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How do you enhance a outstanding experienced team who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of ex- pro players who have played at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you target more silverware.

A Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight players in their current roster.

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

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

Their lineup this season includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite matches.

This star-studded team also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

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

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured fifteen major trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Household Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Republic of Ireland appearances, scoring four scores

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.

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

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

"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

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

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 English caps.

"We held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil up and had a

Jasmine Wilson
Jasmine Wilson

Maya Chen is a tech journalist and AI researcher with a decade of experience covering Silicon Valley innovations and their global impact.

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