Discover the Weekend League Team Featuring Over 1,800 English Top Division Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for the team Veterans during a six-two victory against Collegiate Old Boys on October 19th (left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you improve a excellent experienced team who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a group of former pro players who have played at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you target additional trophies.

A Manchester club fields an amateur veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their present squad.

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.

The squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.

The elite roster also contains 222 Premier League goals and over 320 global appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half triple.

The squad for this season also features former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Irish caps, scoring four goals

Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
He featured for the club from 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

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

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

"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender.

"It's a little different 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 attacking.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.

The team are leading of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

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

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a

Alicia Reed
Alicia Reed

A cybersecurity specialist with over a decade of experience in threat analysis and digital forensics.