Discover the Sunday Division Club Boasting Over 1,800 English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The bench for the team Veterans during a six-two triumph versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you improve a outstanding experienced side who have secured back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with 30 victories from 32 matches?

Sign a raft of former pro players who have played at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you pursue further honors.

One Greater Manchester team has an amateur vets team with nine former top-flight footballers in their present lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps

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

The squad list this season includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite appearances.

The star-studded roster also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad include one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home match against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

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

Together, the former Premier League footballers have won 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123m.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

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

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this summer through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

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

"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"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 the team

Unreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 English caps.

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

"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we can't wait for the return match."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a

Ian Valencia
Ian Valencia

Tech enthusiast and writer exploring the intersection of logic and innovation in the Vegas Valley.