🔗 Share this article

What do you improve a excellent veteran squad who have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of former pro players that have played at the top level of club football and global football as you pursue further trophies.

One Manchester side fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their present roster.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

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

The squad list this campaign includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 elite games.

The elite team also includes 222 top division goals and 325 global appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side during pre-season this summer through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

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

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

"Those people who come and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

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

"It's a bit different but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

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

"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.

"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

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

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a