🔗 Share this article

How can you improve a outstanding experienced side who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?

Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the elite level of club and international football as you aim for additional silverware.

One Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with nine former top-flight footballers in their active roster.

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier.

The lineup this season boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League appearances.

This high-profile roster also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home game versus defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this season also features former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

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

Well-Known Figures and International Stars

Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

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

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

"The fans who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

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

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

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

"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Feeling

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight 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 match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays 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 played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.

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

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

"Our side competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

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

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

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

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a