🔗 Share this article

How can you enhance a excellent veteran squad who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 games?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players that have performed at the top tier of club and international soccer as you target more honors.

One Greater Manchester side has an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their active squad.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps

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

The roster this campaign includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 Premier League appearances.

The star-studded team also includes over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

The roster for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have won fifteen significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

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

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

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

'Surreal Experience

In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil up and had a