Meet the Sunday League Team With 1,800 Premier League Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The bench for Wythenshawe Vets during a six-two win against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you improve a stellar veteran squad who have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a raft of former professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for further silverware.

One Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active squad.

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

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

The squad list this season features nine former Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The star-studded roster also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

They include one forward, who netted 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have won fifteen major honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned six Irish appearances, scoring 4 scores

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

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

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

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

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

"Those spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - 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 keep running.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with three wins from three and a GD of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back 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 as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.

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

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a

Janet Johnson
Janet Johnson

A tech journalist and digital strategist with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and consumer electronics.