Introduce this Sunday Division Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games

Wythenshawe Vets bench during a match
This substitutes for the team Vets during a six-two victory 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 boost a stellar veteran side who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Recruit a collection of ex- professionals who have competed at the elite tier of club football and international football as you target additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester side fields an amateur vets squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.

Their squad list this season boasts nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite appearances.

This high-profile team also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

They feature one forward, who scored 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their last home-field match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen big honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Household Names and Global Stars

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

Ireland began turning out for the side during preseason this season through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

Oumar Niasse playing for Everton
Oumar Niasse featured for Everton between 2016 and 2020

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still love the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

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

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

Maynor Figueroa in action
Former Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team

Unreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match up front.

The team are top of the Premier Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.

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

"We really have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a

Elizabeth Hanna
Elizabeth Hanna

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