🔗 Share this article

What do you enhance a excellent experienced squad who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have competed at the highest level of club football and international football as you pursue further honors.

A Manchester side boasts an amateur vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their current squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign includes 9 former top-flight players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight games.

This star-studded roster also boasts 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have won 15 significant trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"A mate Stephen told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"The 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 a place we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

"I think I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.

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

"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

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

We Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who won the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a