🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a outstanding experienced squad that have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 games?

Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have played at the top level of club football and global soccer as you target more honors.

One Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current roster.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier.

The roster this season features nine former top-flight players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.

This high-profile roster also contains 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 significant trophies and moved for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Players

Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.

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

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English caps.

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

"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a