Meet the Sunday League Club Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games

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

How do you enhance a outstanding experienced team that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a group of former professionals that have competed at the highest level of club football and global football as you aim for further trophies.

A Manchester club has an amateur vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their present lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.

The squad list this season boasts nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 elite matches.

This high-profile squad also includes 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.

They feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Household Figures and International Players

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

Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse played for the club between 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his debut at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

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

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

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

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

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

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a

Julie Valdez
Julie Valdez

Tech enthusiast and digital strategist with over a decade of experience in emerging technologies and startup ecosystems.