Meet this Weekend League Squad Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Veterans during a six-two victory versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How do you enhance a outstanding experienced squad who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have played at the top tier of club football and international football as you aim for further trophies.

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

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.

The lineup this season features nine former top-flight players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The star-studded team also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

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

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have won 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.

Famous Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Republic of Ireland appearances, netting four goals

Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

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

"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The spectators who come and see are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running 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.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

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

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

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.

"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

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

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

"Our group literally haven't stopped 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 playing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a

Chris Ellis
Chris Ellis

Lena Visser is a freelance writer and digital nomad exploring the intersection of technology and everyday life.