Meet the Weekend Division Club With 1,800 English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for the team Vets in a 6-2 victory against 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 can you enhance a stellar veteran side who have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a collection of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you pursue more trophies.

One Manchester club has an amateur vets team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

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

The squad list this season boasts nine former top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.

The star-studded team also boasts over 220 top division goals and 325 global caps.

The squad feature one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have won fifteen big honors and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned 6 Irish caps, scoring 4 goals

Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

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

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

"Those fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe

Unreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

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

He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

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

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

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

"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum 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 match."

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil up and had a

Joseph Arias
Joseph Arias

A seasoned journalist with over 15 years of experience covering UK politics and cultural trends, based in London.