🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a stellar veteran squad who have won consecutive titles, including a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a raft of former professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you pursue further honors.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets team with nine ex- top-flight players in their current squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.

Their squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

This high-profile squad also includes over 220 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 big honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Famous Names and Global Stars

Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give 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 play, with structure of course."

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

"It's a little different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Feeling

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 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 young son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.

"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"They 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 fixture."

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a