🔗 Share this article Meet the Weekend League Squad With Over 1,800 English Top Division Games This substitutes for Wythenshawe Veterans in a six-two triumph against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey How do you improve a excellent experienced team that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches? Sign a collection of former professionals who have played at the highest tier of club football and global football as you pursue more honors. A Manchester team has an non-professional vets team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their present roster. 222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps The team Vets Over 35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier. Their squad list this season includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances. The star-studded squad also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps. They include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012. Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game against defending champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple. Wythenshawe's team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. In total, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million. Famous Figures and International Players Stephen Ireland won six Republic of Ireland appearances, netting four goals Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate. Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform. Oumar Niasse played for the club between 2016 and 2020 "My friend Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker. "Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me! "If you still love the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do? "Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course." Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back. "It's a little unusual but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said. "I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking. "The running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun." Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe Dreamlike' Feeling Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker. Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19. Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was. Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League games. "It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow. "I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest. "Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England appearances. "We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough. "Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home. "They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas. "Now we are eager for the second fixture." We Will Still Win the Title' The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire. "Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a