Meet the Sunday Division Club Featuring Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches

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

How do you enhance a stellar experienced squad who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

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

A Greater Manchester team fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active lineup.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps

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

The roster this season includes nine former top-flight players, with a total 1,801 top-flight matches.

This elite squad also includes over 220 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.

The team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won six Republic of Ireland caps, scoring four scores

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!

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

"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

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

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's got over 60 English appearances.

"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a

Michael Elliott
Michael Elliott

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