🔗 Share this article Meet this Weekend League Team With 1,800 Premier League Matches The substitutes for the team Vets in a 6-2 triumph versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey What can you improve a stellar experienced team who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from 32 matches? Bring in a collection of former professionals who have competed at the top level of club football and international soccer as you target additional honors. One Greater Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight players in their present roster. Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier. The lineup this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite appearances. This elite team also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 global appearances. They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012. Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick. The squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen big honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million. Household Names and International Stars Stephen Ireland earned 6 Irish appearances, netting 4 goals Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate. Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform. Oumar Niasse featured for the club from 2016 and 2020 "My friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse. "After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me! "When you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose? "The spectators who come and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course." So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender. "It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added. "I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking. "That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable." Ex- Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe Dreamlike' Scenario Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game up front. Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen. Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was. He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games. "It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow. "I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest. "Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps. "Our side held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard. "Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home. "The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas. "Now we can't wait for the second fixture." 'We'll Still Take the League' The manager manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager. "Our team scored 1-0 up and had a