The Manchester-based dream team won back-to-back promotions before they even signed the Premiership legends which line their ranks and run out every Sunday
A Sunday league football team have recruited nine ex-Premier League stars. Wythenshawe AFC boast ex-England striker Emile Heskey, Manchester City title winner Joleon Lescott and former Newcastle ace Papiss Cisse.
Their stellar side has 1,800 Premier League appearances between them and 325 international caps. And the Manchester-based dream team won back-to-back promotions before they even signed the Prem legends.
Chairman Carl Barratt said: “The vets team has always been successful and had a very good season last year. The funniest part of it all is that these players have been worth millions and my wife has been sending them letters to set up their subscriptions for their subs.
“She comes to me and says ‘we’ve signed someone called Emile Heskey’ and then we’re asking him for £15.”
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.
Their squad also includes ex-Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, former Everton striker Oumar Niasse, ex-Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Danny Drinkwater who famously won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2016.
They have won 15 major trophies between them and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123m. Senegal star Niasse said: “My friend Stephen Ireland said ‘come and play, it’s good fun’.
“Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts – I say this is wrong for me!
“When you still love football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play football, what are you going to do?
“The people who come and watch are happy and to make someone’s day if they see us playing there and to ask us questions – it’s more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course.”
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