🔗 Share this article Discover this Weekend Division Team With Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches This substitutes for Wythenshawe Vets in a 6-2 victory versus Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (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 side that have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from 32 games? Recruit a group of former pro players that have competed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you target further honors. A Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their active lineup. Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier. Their lineup this season features nine former Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League matches. This high-profile squad also boasts over 220 top division scores and 325 international caps. They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012. Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick. Wythenshawe's team for this season also features former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. In total, the former top-flight footballers have won fifteen major honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123m. Household Names and Global Players He won 6 Irish appearances, netting four goals Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in. Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip. Oumar Niasse featured for Everton from 2016 and 2020 "A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker. "Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me! "If you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose? "The spectators who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course." Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender. "That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said. "I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running. "That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable." Ex- Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team 'Surreal Feeling Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker. The team are top of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19. Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was. He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight games. "The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow. "I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest. "Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd English caps. "We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard. "We really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home. "The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas. "Now we are eager for the second fixture." We Will Still Take the Title' Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire. "We went one-nil up and had a