Introduce the Sunday Division Team Featuring 1,800 English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Vets in a 6-2 triumph versus their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you improve a excellent veteran squad that have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of former professionals who have performed at the top level of club football and global soccer as you target further silverware.

One Manchester club has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active squad.

222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier.

The lineup this season features nine ex- top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 Premier League games.

The elite squad also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League footballers have won 15 significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Irish caps, scoring four goals

Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse featured for the club from 2016 and 2020

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who come and see are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

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

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back 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
Ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match 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 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

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

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

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

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Division title last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a

Charles Avery
Charles Avery

A passionate storyteller and travel enthusiast who shares unique perspectives on life's adventures and personal development.