🔗 Share this article

How do you enhance a outstanding experienced squad that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 games?

Recruit a group of ex- pro players who have performed at the top level of club and international football as you pursue further honors.

One Greater Manchester side fields an amateur veterans team with 9 former Premier League players in their present lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.

Their squad list this campaign includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.

This star-studded squad also contains over 220 top division goals and 325 global caps.

The squad feature one forward, who notched 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have won fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a