Introduce the Weekend League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Vets in a six-two win versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a stellar experienced squad who have claimed consecutive championships, including a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a group of former professionals who have performed at the top tier of club and international football as you target further trophies.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current squad.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps

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

Their roster this season features 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite appearances.

This high-profile team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured fifteen major honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.

Well-Known Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland earned six Irish appearances, netting four goals

Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
He played for the club between 2016 and 2020

"My mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange 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 pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.

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

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

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

"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

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

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

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Division title last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a

Tiffany Lewis
Tiffany Lewis

Interieurontwerper en trendwatcher met een passie voor duurzaam en esthetisch design.