Meet the Sunday League Club Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Vets in a 6-2 win versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How do you boost a stellar veteran squad who have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Recruit a collection of ex- professionals that have played at the highest tier of club football and global football as you aim for more honors.

One Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

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

The squad list this campaign includes nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite games.

The high-profile roster also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The squad for this season also includes ex- pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League players have secured fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and Global Players

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

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this summer through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"My friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," said the striker.

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

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who come and see are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.

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

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

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a

Steven Tate
Steven Tate

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