🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a excellent veteran team that have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a raft of ex- pro players that have competed at the elite tier of club football and international football as you pursue further silverware.

A Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their current roster.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League appearances.

This elite roster also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

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

Together, the ex- top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Household Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My friend Stephen told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

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

"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.

"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.

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

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

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

"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil up and had a