🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a outstanding experienced team who have won back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?

Sign a collection of former pro players who have played at the top tier of club and global soccer as you pursue more silverware.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances

The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.

Their lineup this season boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 elite appearances.

The star-studded squad also contains 222 top division scores and 325 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

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

In total, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Players

Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

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

So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running 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 seeking. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Experience

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.

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

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

"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a