🔗 Share this article

What can you enhance a stellar veteran team that have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 games?

Sign a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the elite level of club and international football as you pursue additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester club fields an amateur vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their current lineup.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier.

Their squad list this season includes 9 former top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 elite games.

This high-profile roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have claimed fifteen big honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, 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 shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move 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 continue running.

"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

"Now we can't wait for the return match."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a