🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a stellar veteran side who have claimed consecutive championships, including a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a collection of former pro players who have played at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you target further trophies.

One Manchester side has an amateur vets team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their present squad.

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

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

Their lineup this campaign features nine former top-flight players, with a total 1,801 elite matches.

The elite roster also boasts over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have won fifteen big honors and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Players

Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who come and see are happy and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"That's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

"Even Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

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

"We 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 normal fellas.

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a