🔗 Share this article Introduce the Weekend League Squad Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Games The bench for Wythenshawe Veterans in a six-two win against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, another, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey What do you improve a excellent veteran team who have won consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 games? Sign a group of former pro players who have played at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you target more silverware. One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets team with nine ex- top-flight players in their current lineup. 222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier. Their squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League games. This star-studded roster also includes over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps. The squad include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012. He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick. Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have won 15 big honors and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123m. Well-Known Figures and Global Stars He earned six Republic of Ireland caps, scoring four goals Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in. Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform. Oumar Niasse featured for Everton from 2016 and 2020 "A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse. "After that 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 wrong for me! "If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do? "Those people who come and see are pleased and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course." So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back. "That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added. "I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running. "That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable." Former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa is turning out for Wythenshawe Dreamlike' Feeling In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match up front. The team are leading of the Top Division with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen. Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was. Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games. "The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player. "I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest. "Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English appearances. "Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard. "We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home. "The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys. "Now we can't wait for the second fixture." 'We'll Still Win the League' Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire. "We went 1-0 up and had a