Meet this Sunday Division Squad Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for Wythenshawe Vets in a six-two victory against their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you improve a excellent experienced squad who have secured consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Sign a collection of former professionals who have played at the highest tier of club football and global football as you aim for more honors.

One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances

The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

The roster this campaign features 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total 1,801 Premier League games.

This star-studded squad also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123m.

Well-Known Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won 6 Irish appearances, scoring 4 goals

Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

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

"When you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to give a day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

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

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

"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

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

We Will Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a

Brian Lowery
Brian Lowery

Digital strategist and UX designer with over a decade of experience in tech innovation and web development projects across Europe.