🔗 Share this article Discover this Weekend Division Team With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Games This bench for the team Vets in a six-two triumph against their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey What can you improve a outstanding experienced squad that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two games? Recruit a collection of former professionals who have competed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you target further trophies. One Manchester club fields an amateur vets squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active lineup. Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier. The roster this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite appearances. The elite roster also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 global caps. The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012. Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick. The roster for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder 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 top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million. Well-Known Names and International Players He won 6 Republic of Ireland caps, scoring four scores Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in. Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip. Oumar Niasse played for Everton between 2016 and 2020 "My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse. "Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me! "When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose? "The spectators who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like 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 defender. "It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said. "I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking. "That running is what I'm after. It's good fun." Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team 'Surreal Experience In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one game up front. Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen. One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was. Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League games. "It was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said the player. "I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest. "Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances. "Our side competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard. "Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home. "They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas. "Now we can't wait for the second fixture." 'We'll Still Win the Title' The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Division championship last season, along with his co-manager. "Our team scored one-nil up and had a