🔗 Share this article Meet this Weekend Division Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches The bench for the team Veterans during a 6-2 win against Collegiate Old Boys on October 19th (from left to right) - one player, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey How do you enhance a excellent experienced team who have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 matches? Recruit a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest level of club football and global soccer as you pursue further honors. One Manchester team fields an non-professional vets team with nine ex- Premier League players in their active roster. 222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division. Their roster this season boasts nine former top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight matches. The high-profile team also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances. The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012. He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple. The squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have won fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123m. Well-Known Figures and International Stars Stephen Ireland earned 6 Republic of Ireland caps, netting 4 scores Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this season through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in. Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip. Oumar Niasse featured for the club from 2016 and 2020 "A friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," said the striker. "After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me! "If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose? "Those fans who turn up and watch are happy 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 play, with structure of course." Such is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at defender. "It's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added. "I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking. "That movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun." Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe 'Surreal Experience Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front. The team are top of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19. One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was. Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches. "It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow. "I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest. "Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances. "We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough. "Our group literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home. "The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas. "Now we are eager for the return match." We Will Still Win the League' Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire. "We scored one-nil up and had a