Introduce the Sunday League Squad With 1,800 Premier League Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The substitutes for the team Veterans in a 6-2 victory against their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you improve a excellent experienced side that have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the highest tier of club and international football as you pursue additional honors.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps

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

Their squad list this season boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 elite games.

The star-studded roster also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their last home game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 significant honors and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Names and Global Players

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

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

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

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

"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.

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

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a

Stephen Raymond
Stephen Raymond

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