🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a stellar veteran squad that have secured consecutive titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of former professionals that have performed at the elite level of club and international soccer as you aim for more trophies.

One Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans team with nine former top-flight players in their active lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps

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

Their squad list this season includes 9 ex- Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.

This high-profile squad also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 global appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this season also includes ex- pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side in pre-season this season through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"The spectators who come and see are happy and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

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

Dreamlike' Experience

Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

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

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a