Discover this Sunday Division Club Featuring Over 1,800 Premier League Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for the team Vets in a six-two win against their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How do you enhance a excellent experienced squad who have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 games?

Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the top tier of club football and international soccer as you pursue additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their current squad.

222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

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

The roster this campaign includes nine former Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 top-flight matches.

The elite team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

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

Together, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Household Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned six Republic of Ireland appearances, netting 4 goals

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and see are happy and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

"That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match up front.

The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

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

"We really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil up and had a

Craig Johnson
Craig Johnson

Liam is a seasoned online gaming expert with over a decade of experience in the iGaming industry.