Discover the Sunday Division Club With 1,800 Top-Flight Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for Wythenshawe Veterans during a 6-2 win against their opponents on October 19th (from left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you improve a stellar experienced team who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 games?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players who have competed at the top level of club football and global football as you pursue additional trophies.

One Manchester team boasts an amateur vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their current squad.

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

Their roster this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight games.

This star-studded roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus reigning champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight players have secured fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won 6 Irish appearances, scoring four scores

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

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"The spectators who come and watch are happy and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go 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 attacking.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen 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 hat-trick in one match up front.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

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

"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

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

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

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a

Sherry Barnett
Sherry Barnett

Award-winning journalist and foreign correspondent with over 15 years of experience covering global conflicts and diplomatic affairs across five continents.