🔗 Share this article Discover the Weekend League Team Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Games The bench for Wythenshawe Veterans in a 6-2 victory against Collegiate Old Boys on October 19th (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey What can you enhance a outstanding veteran side that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 matches? Recruit a collection of former professionals that have played at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you pursue further honors. A Greater Manchester team has an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League players in their present roster. Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Tier. Their lineup this season includes nine ex- Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances. This high-profile roster also contains over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps. The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012. He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick. The squad for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million. Famous Figures and International Stars He won six Irish appearances, netting 4 goals Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate. Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against 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 told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse. "Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me! "When you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do? "The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course." So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back. "That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added. "I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running. "The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable." Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team Dreamlike' Feeling In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker. The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of +19. One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was. He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games. "It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow. "I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest. "Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England caps. "Our side competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard. "Our group really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home. "They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas. "Now we can't wait for the second match." 'We'll Still Take the League' Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire. "We went 1-0 up and had a