🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a outstanding veteran team that have won back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 games?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest level of club football and international soccer as you aim for more trophies.

A Manchester side has an amateur veterans squad with nine former top-flight players in their current roster.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.

The lineup this season includes nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

This elite roster also boasts 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 major trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this summer through close friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

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

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

"Those people who come and see are happy and to make a day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"That's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

'Surreal Experience

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

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

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.

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

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

"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"We really haven't 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 match - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a