Meet this Sunday League Team Boasting Over 1,800 English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The bench for Wythenshawe Vets during a six-two win versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you enhance a excellent veteran side who have secured consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Bring in a collection of former professionals who have performed at the top level of club and global soccer as you aim for additional silverware.

One Manchester side fields an amateur vets team with nine ex- top-flight players in their active lineup.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances

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

Their squad list this season features 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total 1,801 top-flight games.

This high-profile roster also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 global caps.

The squad include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won 6 Irish caps, netting 4 goals

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

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

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

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

"That 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' Experience

In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

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

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

"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

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

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a

Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Fisher

Alex is a veteran network engineer and tech journalist who covers innovations in UK networking.