🔗 Share this article Introduce the Weekend Division Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games The substitutes for Wythenshawe Veterans during a 6-2 victory 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 do you enhance a stellar experienced team who have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches? Sign a raft of former professionals who have performed at the top tier of club football and international football as you target further honors. A Greater Manchester side has an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League players in their current squad. Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division. The squad list this season boasts 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight games. This elite team also includes over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps. The squad include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012. He had his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick. The squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo 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 moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million. Household Figures and Global Players Stephen Ireland earned six Irish appearances, netting four goals Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in. Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform. Oumar Niasse featured for Everton between 2016 and 2020 "A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse. "Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me! "When you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do? "Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course." So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back. "That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said. "I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running. "The movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable." Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe 'Surreal Experience In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker. The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen. Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was. Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games. "It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player. "I think I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest. "Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 English appearances. "We competed well 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 phoning my mother and brother on the journey home. "The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas. "Now we are eager for the return match." 'We'll Still Win the League' Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire. "We scored one-nil up and had a