🔗 Share this article

What do you enhance a stellar experienced team who have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 matches?

Sign a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you pursue more honors.

One Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their active squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Vets Over 35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

Their squad list this campaign includes 9 former Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 elite appearances.

The star-studded roster also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

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

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 major honors and moved for total transfer sums of about £123m.

Famous Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this summer through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.

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

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.

"I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 English appearances.

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

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a