Discover this Weekend League Club Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans during a 6-2 triumph against their opponents on October 19th (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How do you boost a stellar experienced team that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches?

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

One Greater Manchester team fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their present lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

The squad list this season boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

This star-studded team also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 global appearances.

The squad include one forward, who notched 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their last home game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour first-half triple.

The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have won fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Well-Known Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned 6 Irish appearances, netting 4 goals

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and watch are pleased and to give a day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

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

"The opponents 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 Title'

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

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a

Linda Frederick
Linda Frederick

A professional poker player and gaming analyst with over a decade of experience in online casinos and strategy development.