🔗 Share this article Introduce this Sunday League Team Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances The substitutes for the team Veterans during a 6-2 victory against Collegiate Old Boys on 19 October (left to right) - Oumar Niasse, Papiss Cisse, a teammate, Blake Norton, Maynor Figueroa, Dean Warburton and Emile Heskey How do you improve a stellar veteran side who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches? Bring in a group of former pro players who have competed at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you pursue further trophies. One Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their current squad. 222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances The team Vets Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier. Their squad list this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite appearances. This star-studded squad also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps. They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012. Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick. The squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater. Collectively, the former Premier League players have secured 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123m. Household Names and Global Players He won six Irish caps, netting 4 goals Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this season through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate. Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform. He played for the club between 2016 and 2020 "A friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse. "After that he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me! "When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do? "The people who come and see are pleased and to give a 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 squad depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back. "That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added. "I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running. "That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable." Ex- Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa is playing for the team Dreamlike' Experience In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front. The team are leading of the Top Division with three victories from three and a GD of +19. One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was. He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 Premier League matches. "The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow. "I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest. "Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps. "We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard. "Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home. "They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular guys. "Now we can't wait for the return fixture." 'We'll Still Win the Title' The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire. "Our team went 1-0 up and had a