Discover the Sunday Division Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans during a six-two victory 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 enhance a stellar veteran squad who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Recruit a group of former pro players that have played at the top tier of club and international football as you pursue additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.

Their lineup this season boasts nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite appearances.

The elite roster also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 international caps.

The squad feature one forward, who scored 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The roster for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won six Irish appearances, netting 4 goals

Ireland began turning out for the side during preseason this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

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

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

"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

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

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

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

'Surreal Experience

Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

"I think I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.

"Our side held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

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

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

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

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a

Andrew Jenkins
Andrew Jenkins

A political analyst and writer with over a decade of experience covering UK parliamentary affairs and social policy developments.