Introduce this Weekend League Team With 1,800 English Top Division Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Vets in a 6-2 victory versus Collegiate Old Boys on October 19th (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you boost a stellar veteran team that have won back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a group of ex- professionals that have played at the top level of club and international football as you pursue additional honors.

One Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances

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

The lineup this season features nine former top-flight footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 elite matches.

The star-studded roster also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have won fifteen major trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Republic of Ireland appearances, scoring four goals

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.

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

"My friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

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

"If you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

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

"It's a little different but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"We held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

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

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

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a

Andrea Turner
Andrea Turner

Lieke is een tech-liefhebber en lifestyle-blogger met een passie voor duurzaamheid en innovatie.