🔗 Share this article

What can you enhance a outstanding veteran side who have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 games?

Sign a group of former professionals who have competed at the highest level of club and global football as you aim for further silverware.

One Manchester side has an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.

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

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

Their squad list this season features 9 former top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite matches.

This star-studded team also contains over 220 top division goals and 325 global caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The roster for this season also features former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Well-Known Names and Global Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to give a moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I love running 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.

"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.

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

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

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

"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a