🔗 Share this article

How can you enhance a outstanding veteran side that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a collection of former pro players that have played at the top level of club football and global soccer as you target additional trophies.

One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their active lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign features nine former Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 top-flight appearances.

The star-studded squad also boasts over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match versus defending champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have won fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to make a day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

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

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

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

"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a