🔗 Share this article Meet the Weekend Division Club With Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches The substitutes for Wythenshawe Veterans during a six-two 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 team that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games? Sign a group of former professionals who have played at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you target more silverware. One Manchester side fields an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their current squad. 222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps The team Vets Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division. Their lineup this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite games. The elite squad also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international caps. The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012. He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick. The team for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. Collectively, the former Premier League players have secured fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million. Famous Names and Global Stars Stephen Ireland earned 6 Irish appearances, scoring four scores Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate. Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform. He featured for Everton between 2016 and 2020 "My mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse. "Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me! "When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do? "Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course." So great is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at defender. "That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said. "I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking. "The running is what I'm after. It's good fun." Ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team Unreal Experience Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front. Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19. One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was. Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred Premier League matches. "The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player. "I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest. "Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 English appearances. "Our side held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough. "We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home. "They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys. "Now we can't wait for the return fixture." 'We'll Still Take the League' The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire. "We scored one-nil ahead and had a