Meet this Sunday Division Team Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances

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

What do you improve a outstanding veteran team who have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a raft of former professionals who have competed at the top level of club football and global soccer as you pursue further trophies.

One Greater Manchester side has an amateur veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Division.

The lineup this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.

This elite team also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their last home match versus defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period triple.

The squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123m.

Famous Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned six Irish appearances, netting 4 goals

Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"My mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!

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

"The fans who come and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, he had his first game at defender.

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

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

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

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.

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

He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League matches.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

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

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

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

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a

Jeffery Lopez
Jeffery Lopez

Wildlife biologist specializing in sloth research, with over a decade of field experience in Central and South American rainforests.