Discover the Sunday Division Squad Featuring 1,800 English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans in a 6-2 victory against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you boost a stellar veteran squad who have secured consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you pursue further silverware.

One Greater Manchester team has an amateur vets squad with nine former Premier League players in their active squad.

222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

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

Their squad list this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 top-flight matches.

The elite team also boasts 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

They include one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Republic of Ireland caps, scoring 4 scores

Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse featured for Everton from 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"The fans who turn up and see are pleased and to make a day if they watch 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."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English caps.

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

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

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a

Samuel Potter
Samuel Potter

Yasmine is een interieurontwerpster en woonexpert met een passie voor het creëren van warme en stijlvolle leefruimtes.