Discover this Sunday League Team With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances

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

How can you enhance a outstanding veteran team who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 games?

Sign a raft of ex- pro players who have performed at the elite tier of club football and international football as you target more honors.

A Manchester club has an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

The roster this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.

This star-studded squad also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The team for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League footballers have won fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Famous Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won six Irish appearances, netting four goals

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"My mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

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

"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

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

So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

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

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

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

"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.

"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a

Tyler Mccullough
Tyler Mccullough

Liam is a seasoned travel blogger with a passion for uncovering hidden gems and sharing practical travel hacks.