🔗 Share this article

What can you boost a outstanding veteran team that have won consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of former professionals who have played at the top level of club football and global football as you pursue more honors.

A Greater Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with 9 former top-flight players in their active lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.

The squad list this campaign features nine ex- top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 Premier League games.

The high-profile roster also includes over 220 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

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

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

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

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

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

'Surreal Experience

In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight matches.

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

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.

"We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a