Introduce this Weekend League Team With Over 1,800 Premier League Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for Wythenshawe Veterans during a six-two triumph against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a stellar veteran team that have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the top level of club and international football as you pursue more silverware.

One Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their active squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign includes 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite games.

The elite team also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.

They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Irish appearances, netting four goals

Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this summer through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

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

"A mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who come and see are happy and to give a day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at defender.

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

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe

'Surreal Experience

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

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

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

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

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

"Our group literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a

Matthew Strong
Matthew Strong

A tech strategist with over a decade of experience in AI and digital transformation, passionate about simplifying complex innovations.