🔗 Share this article

How can you improve a stellar veteran team who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

Bring in a group of ex- pro players who have played at the highest tier of club and global football as you pursue additional silverware.

A Manchester team has an amateur veterans team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their current lineup.

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

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

Their roster this season includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined over 1,800 elite games.

The elite roster also contains 222 top division scores and 325 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning champions their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Famous Names and International Stars

Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

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

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those spectators who come and see are pleased and to make a day if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

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

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are top of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.

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

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

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

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

"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a