Meet the Weekend Division Squad Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Vets during a six-two triumph versus their opponents on October 19th (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you boost a excellent veteran side who have claimed consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?

Sign a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the top tier of club and global football as you target more honors.

A Manchester team fields an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former top-flight footballers in their active squad.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.

Their lineup this season features nine former top-flight footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The star-studded roster also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this season also features former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder 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.

In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen big trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Household Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won 6 Irish appearances, netting four goals

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

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

"When you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting 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 keep running.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender 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 appearances for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

"We competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a

Patricia Tyler
Patricia Tyler

Digital strategist with 15+ years in tech, specializing in growth hacking and scalable systems.