Introduce the Sunday League Club Featuring Over 1,800 Premier League Appearances

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

What can you improve a stellar veteran side who have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?

Bring in a raft of former professionals that have played at the top level of club and global football as you aim for more silverware.

One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight players in their present squad.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Division.

Their squad list this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 top-flight appearances.

The star-studded roster also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Republic of Ireland appearances, netting 4 goals

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this season through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

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

"When you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The spectators who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd England caps.

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

"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a

Joel Simmons
Joel Simmons

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