Introduce this Weekend League Team Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
The bench for Wythenshawe Vets during a 6-2 triumph versus Collegiate Old Boys on October 19th (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

How can you boost a stellar experienced team who have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Sign a collection of former professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you pursue more trophies.

One Manchester side has an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Division.

The roster this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 top-flight games.

This star-studded squad also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus reigning title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He won 6 Republic of Ireland caps, netting 4 scores

Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
He featured for the club between 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.

"Now we can't wait for the second match."

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a

Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett

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