🔗 Share this article

How can you improve a outstanding veteran squad that have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a collection of former pro players who have played at the elite level of club football and international soccer as you aim for more trophies.

One Manchester club fields an non-professional vets team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their current roster.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.

Their squad list this season includes 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.

The star-studded team also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match against defending champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The team for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123 million.

Household Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this season through good mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.

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

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

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

"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

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

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

We Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a