🔗 Share this article

How can you improve a stellar veteran side that have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest level of club and global football as you pursue additional honors.

One Manchester club boasts an amateur vets squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

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

The squad list this campaign features 9 ex- Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League matches.

This star-studded team also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.

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

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

The roster for this campaign also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this summer through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"The people who come and see are pleased and to make a day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just move 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 running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Experience

In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

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

"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.

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

"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a