🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a excellent experienced side who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a raft of former professionals who have competed at the top level of club football and international football as you aim for further trophies.

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

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

The roster this campaign features 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite appearances.

The star-studded roster also boasts over 220 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Household Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

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

"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at defender.

"That's a little different 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 staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

"I think I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.

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

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a