Introduce this Sunday League Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Vets in a six-two triumph versus their opponents on 19 October (from left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, Marcel Edwards, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you improve a stellar experienced team who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

Recruit a group of former professionals who have performed at the top tier of club and international soccer as you target more trophies.

A Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- top-flight players in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.

The squad list this season features 9 former Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.

This elite roster also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland in action
He won six Irish caps, scoring four scores

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

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

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at defender.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - 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 keep running.

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

Maynor Figueroa in action
Ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe

Unreal Experience

Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.

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

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a

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Jonathan Hernandez

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