Discover the Sunday Division Team With Over 1,800 Premier League Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans during a 6-2 victory versus 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 enhance a outstanding experienced team that have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?

Sign a raft of ex- pro players that have performed at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you aim for further honors.

One Manchester team boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their present squad.

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.

Their lineup this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 elite matches.

This high-profile squad also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international appearances.

They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

The squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned 6 Republic of Ireland caps, scoring four scores

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this summer through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse played for the club from 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and watch are happy and to make a day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match up front.

The team are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

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

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

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

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

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

We Will Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a

Jason Henry
Jason Henry

A professional woodworker and DIY enthusiast with over 15 years of experience in crafting custom furniture and home decor projects.