🔗 Share this article

How can you improve a outstanding veteran squad who have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a collection of ex- pro players that have played at the top level of club and international soccer as you target additional honors.

A Manchester team has an amateur veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current squad.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.

The roster this season includes nine ex- top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.

The star-studded team also contains 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.

The squad feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this season through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

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

"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The people who come and watch are happy and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

"That running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Unreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight games.

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

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 England caps.

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

"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a