🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a excellent veteran squad that have won back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 games?

Sign a collection of ex- pro players who have performed at the top tier of club football and global football as you aim for more trophies.

One Greater Manchester side has an amateur veterans team with nine former top-flight footballers in their present lineup.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

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

Their lineup this campaign includes nine ex- top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite matches.

This high-profile squad also contains over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 major honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

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

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

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to give a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Unreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight games.

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

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

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

"Our side held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a