🔗 Share this article Meet this Sunday Division Club With Over 1,800 English Top Division Games The bench for the team Vets during a six-two victory 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 What can you enhance a excellent experienced team that have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 games? Sign a raft of former professionals that have performed at the top level of club and global soccer as you aim for further trophies. One Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 former top-flight players in their active roster. 222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances The team Vets Over-35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Division. Their roster this season features 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite matches. This star-studded team also contains over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps. The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in January 2012. Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour first-half triple. Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 big honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million. Well-Known Names and International Players Stephen Ireland won six Irish appearances, netting 4 goals Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in. Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform. Oumar Niasse played for the club from 2016 and 2020 "A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse. "After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me! "If you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose? "The people who come and see are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course." Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at full-back. "That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - 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 running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun." Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for Wythenshawe 'Surreal Experience Along with Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front. The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen. One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was. He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight games. "The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player. "I felt I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest. "Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 English caps. "Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard. "Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home. "They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas. "Now we can't wait for the return match." We Will Still Take the League' The manager manages the opposition vets side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire. "Our team scored 1-0 up and had a