🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a outstanding veteran side that have secured back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?

Sign a raft of ex- professionals who have performed at the top level of club and international soccer as you target further honors.

A Greater Manchester team has an amateur veterans squad with nine former top-flight players in their current squad.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.

Their roster this campaign includes 9 former Premier League players, with a total 1,801 Premier League appearances.

The star-studded team also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.

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

He made his debut for the team in their last home-field game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

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

Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have won 15 big honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123m.

Famous Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!

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

"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at the club, he made his debut at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight matches.

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

"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

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

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second match."

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 up and had a