Discover this Sunday League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Veterans during a six-two triumph versus their opponents on 19 October (left to right) - one player, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey

What can you enhance a outstanding veteran squad who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a group of former professionals who have performed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you target additional silverware.

One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

The squad list this season includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League matches.

This high-profile team also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.

They include one forward, who notched 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus reigning champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland in action
He earned 6 Irish caps, scoring four scores

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this summer through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

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

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I love 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 enjoyable."

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier 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 full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England caps.

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

"Our group really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a

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Cheyenne Castro

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