Introduce the Weekend Division Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This bench for Wythenshawe Vets in a 6-2 victory versus their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, another, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What do you enhance a stellar veteran squad who have secured back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a raft of former pro players that have played at the top tier of club and global soccer as you target further honors.

One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their current roster.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Tier.

Their lineup this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The elite team also boasts over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances.

They feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home match versus reigning champions their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 big trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
Stephen Ireland won 6 Republic of Ireland appearances, scoring four scores

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side during pre-season this season through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse played for the club from 2016 and 2020

"A mate Stephen told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The people who come and watch are pleased and to make a 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 organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

'Surreal Feeling

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.

"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a

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Amanda Erickson

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