Meet this Weekend League Club Featuring Over 1,800 English Top Division Games

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

How do you improve a stellar veteran squad who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Sign a raft of former professionals that have played at the highest level of club and global soccer as you aim for more trophies.

A Manchester team fields an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League players in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.

The lineup this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League games.

This star-studded squad also includes 222 Premier League goals and 325 international appearances.

They include one forward, who notched 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half triple.

The squad for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight players have won fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Household Figures and International Players

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

Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"My friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

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

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

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

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.

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

"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

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

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a

Lori Moody
Lori Moody

A tech enthusiast and digital strategist with over a decade of experience in analyzing emerging technologies and their impact on society.