Meet the Weekend League Team With 1,800 Premier League Games

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

What do you enhance a outstanding experienced squad that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

Recruit a group of former professionals that have competed at the highest tier of club and global football as you pursue additional silverware.

One Greater Manchester side fields an amateur veterans team with nine ex- Premier League players in their current lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

Their lineup this season boasts nine former Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 top-flight appearances.

This star-studded squad also includes over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period triple.

The roster for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Well-Known Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned six Republic of Ireland caps, netting four scores

Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

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

"After that he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at full-back.

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

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

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.

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

He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.

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

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.

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

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

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a

Morgan Phillips
Morgan Phillips

A passionate entertainment journalist and cultural commentator based in Amsterdam.