🔗 Share this article Meet this Sunday Division Club Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches This bench for the team Veterans in a 6-2 triumph versus their opponents on October 19th (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey What can you improve a stellar experienced side that have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games? Sign a raft of ex- professionals that have played at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you target further silverware. One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active squad. 222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division. The lineup this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 elite appearances. The high-profile roster also boasts 222 top division goals and 325 global caps. They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012. Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick. Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have won fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m. Famous Figures and International Players He earned six Irish caps, scoring 4 goals Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate. Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip. He featured for Everton from 2016 and 2020 "A friend Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse. "After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me! "When you still enjoy the game and you feel 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 a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course." Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at full-back. "It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added. "I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running. "That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable." Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team 'Surreal Scenario Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front. The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen. One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was. He has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League matches. "It was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow. "I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest. "Also Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English appearances. "Our side held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard. "Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home. "The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys. "Now we are eager for the second match." 'We'll Still Win the Title' Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with his co-manager. "We scored one-nil up and had a