🔗 Share this article Discover this Sunday League Team Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Games The bench for Wythenshawe Veterans in a 6-2 win against their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - one player, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey What do you enhance a excellent veteran side who have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from 32 matches? Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have played at the highest tier of club and global football as you pursue additional silverware. One Manchester team has an amateur vets team with nine former top-flight footballers in their active squad. 222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier. Their lineup this campaign includes 9 former top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League games. The elite roster also boasts 222 top division scores and over 320 international appearances. They include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012. He had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick. Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. Together, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of around £123m. Household Figures and International Stars He earned 6 Irish caps, scoring four scores Ireland began playing for the side in pre-season this season through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate. Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their strip. He featured for the club from 2016 and 2020 "My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse. "After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me! "If you still love the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose? "The people who come and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course." So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at defender. "That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added. "I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking. "The movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable." Ex- Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for the team Unreal Scenario In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front. Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen. Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was. He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches. "It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player. "I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest. "Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English caps. "Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough. "Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home. "They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys. "Now we can't wait for the second fixture." 'We'll Still Win the League' The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire. "We went one-nil up and had a