🔗 Share this article

How do you enhance a excellent veteran team who have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of former pro players that have competed at the top tier of club and international football as you pursue additional honors.

A Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.

The lineup this campaign includes nine former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League appearances.

This star-studded roster also contains 222 top division goals and 325 international caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home match against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The team for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen significant trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"The fans who come and see are pleased and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - 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 continue attacking.

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.

He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

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

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

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

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a