Who Plays for Wythenshawe Veterans? Usain Bolt Joins Star-Studded Squad
Usain Bolt spent years talking about his dream of becoming a professional footballer. At 40, he now appears ready to put the boots back on, although perhaps not quite at the level he once imagined.
The eight-time Olympic champion has been registered to play for Wythenshawe FC Veterans, the Greater Manchester team that has become one of the strangest and most interesting stories in English grassroots football.
Bolt’s name appeared on the Wythenshawe squad list on the Football Association’s Full-Time website in August 2026. At the time, Wythenshawe had not made a formal announcement of his arrival, so it is more accurate to say he has been registered to play rather than that he has signed a conventional professional contract.
But if Bolt does turn out for them this season, he certainly won’t be the only familiar face.
Who Are Wythenshawe Veterans?
Wythenshawe Veterans compete in the Cheshire Veterans Football League, where players must be over 35.
That sounds like fairly normal Sunday League football.
The team sheet is anything but normal.
Former Manchester City and Republic of Ireland midfielder Stephen Ireland manages the side, and the list of former Premier League players to have become involved reads like a collection of names from a football quiz.
Emile Heskey, Joleon Lescott, Papiss Cissé, Danny Drinkwater, Antonio Valencia, Marc Albrighton, Nedum Onuoha, Maynor Figueroa, George Boyd and Stephen Ireland himself have all been involved.
Last season’s squad could boast more than 1,800 Premier League appearances between them.
For 2026/27, Wythenshawe announced an initial 28-man squad containing the likes of Heskey, Valencia, Cissé, Lescott, Albrighton, Adrian Mariappa, Paul McShane, Keiren Westwood, Jefferson Montero and Martyn Waghorn.
Then Bolt’s name appeared on the FA registration list.
Sunday League suddenly had an eight-time Olympic champion to go with all those former internationals.
How Did Wythenshawe Get So Many Former Premier League Players?
The unlikely team began taking shape largely through Stephen Ireland and his football contacts.
Ireland became involved with Wythenshawe through friend and player Blake Norton, and other former professionals gradually started coming along. One player knew another, word spread and the squad became increasingly impressive.
By late 2025, Wythenshawe Veterans had become a story well outside the Cheshire Veterans League.
Crowds grew, videos of the team spread online and some of the results showed exactly what happens when former Premier League footballers start playing Sunday League together.
They beat South Liverpool 13-0 in November 2025, with Papiss Cissé scoring eight times. Other league results included wins of 10-1, 10-0, 9-0, 12-0 and 11-2.
Despite the obvious gap in playing experience, the former professionals have spoken positively about simply being able to play football again without everything that surrounds the professional game.
Wythenshawe Veterans have already fielded a remarkable list of former Premier League and international players, including:
- Marc Albrighton
- George Boyd
- Papiss Cissé
- Danny Drinkwater
- Corry Evans
- Rory Fallon
- Maynor Figueroa
- Emile Heskey
- Stephen Ireland
- Joleon Lescott
- Jefferson Montero
- Oumar Niasse
- David Norris
- Nedum Onuoha
- Antonio Valencia
- Danny Simpson
- Paul McShane
- James Chester
- Keiren Westwood
- Clayton McDonald
For players who have spent their entire adult lives training every day, retirement can leave a rather large hole.
Wythenshawe gives them somewhere to play, compete and spend time with other former professionals, without their livelihood depending on what happens on Sunday.
The idea has become so successful that Wythenshawe Veterans were invited to play in The Soccer Tournament in North Carolina in May 2026, a seven-a-side competition carrying a $1 million winner-takes-all prize.
Usain Bolt and Football
For Bolt, joining this particular group makes plenty of sense.
Football has never been a passing interest.
He is a lifelong Manchester United supporter and repeatedly spoke during his athletics career about wanting to play professionally once he stopped sprinting.
After retiring from athletics in 2017, he actually tried.
Bolt trained with Borussia Dortmund and Norwegian side Strømsgodset before joining Australia’s Central Coast Mariners on trial in 2018.
This wasn’t simply a publicity appearance.
Bolt trained with the Mariners for several months and scored twice in a trial game. The Australian club eventually offered him a contract, but the two sides were unable to put together a commercial deal that worked and his spell ended in November 2018.
That effectively ended his attempt to become a full-time professional footballer.
It didn’t end his interest in playing.
Bolt has since become a regular at Soccer Aid and has continued talking about football, particularly Manchester United.
Now he has another chance to play competitive games, just a few miles from Old Trafford.
Could Usain Bolt Actually Play for Wythenshawe?
There is clearly a big difference between being registered and appearing every week.
Bolt lives a very different life from the average Cheshire Veterans League player, and there is no guarantee that he will be available for every fixture.
But this isn’t simply a famous name being added to a publicity list.
Earlier in 2026, Bolt was asked about Wythenshawe Veterans and said he would be interested in playing if he could get himself fit enough. His subsequent appearance on the FA’s player list suggests things have moved considerably further since then.
And at 40, he fits perfectly into an over-35s competition.
The legs may not move at 9.58-second pace anymore, but defenders in the Cheshire Veterans League might still be hoping Stephen Ireland decides to use him at centre-back.
From Manchester United Dream to Wythenshawe Veterans
Bolt never got the Manchester United appearance he once talked about, but his latest football move has a certain logic to it.
Wythenshawe Veterans have created something unusual by giving former top-level players a place where football can simply be football again.
They have also become a magnet for retired players who clearly aren’t quite ready to stop competing.
For Heskey, Lescott, Valencia, Cissé, Albrighton and the rest, it is a chance to keep playing the game they spent decades doing professionally.
For Usain Bolt, it is another chance to do something he has wanted to do for almost as long as anyone can remember.
This time there are no Olympic finals, A-League contracts or dreams of playing for Manchester United to worry about.
Just Sunday League football in Wythenshawe.
Although with this particular Sunday League team, even that isn’t quite as ordinary as it sounds.
