Introduce this Weekend Division Team With 1,800 English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans in a six-two win versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you improve a excellent veteran team who have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

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.

A Greater Manchester club has an amateur vets team with 9 former top-flight players in their present lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.

Their squad list this campaign includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 top-flight matches.

This star-studded roster also includes over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester 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 significant honors and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Republic of Ireland caps, netting 4 scores

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located 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

"My mate Stephen told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

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

"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

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

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

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

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"We really have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a

Amy Williams
Amy Williams

Aria Vance is a mindfulness coach and writer who shares her journey of finding tranquility through meditation and nature.