🔗 Share this article

What can you enhance a stellar veteran team who have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a collection of former professionals who have played at the top tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets team with nine former top-flight footballers in their present roster.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.

The lineup this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League matches.

This elite team also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 international appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The team for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League players have won fifteen big honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Famous Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I tell my defender '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 Scenario

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

The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

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

"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

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

"We literally have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a