🔗 Share this article

What can you enhance a stellar veteran side who have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 matches?

Sign a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest level of club football and international football as you pursue more honors.

A Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their active roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

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

Their lineup this season features nine former top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 elite games.

The high-profile roster also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

The squad feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and International Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this season through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

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

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

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

Unreal Scenario

Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.

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

"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a