🔗 Share this article Meet this Sunday Division Team With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances This bench for Wythenshawe Veterans during a six-two triumph versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey What can you boost a stellar experienced side that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 games? Sign a group of former pro players that have played at the top tier of club football and international soccer as you target more trophies. A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their active lineup. 222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Division. The squad list this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League matches. This high-profile squad also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps. The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012. Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match against defending champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple. The team for this season also features former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. Together, the ex- Premier League players have secured 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m. Famous Names and Global Players He earned 6 Republic of Ireland caps, scoring 4 scores Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in. Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform. Oumar Niasse played for the club from 2016 and 2020 "My mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse. "After that he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me! "When you still love the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do? "Those fans who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course." So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his first game at full-back. "That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said. "I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking. "That running is what I'm after. It's good fun." Ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team Dreamlike' Feeling Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match up front. Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19. Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was. Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games. "The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said the player. "I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest. "Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English appearances. "We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough. "Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home. "The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas. "Now we are eager for the second fixture." We Will Still Take the Title' Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager. "We scored one-nil up and had a