🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a stellar experienced team that have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Sign a raft of ex- pro players that have competed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you aim for more silverware.

A Greater Manchester side has an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their present roster.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.

Their squad list this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.

This star-studded team also includes over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who notched 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League players have won 15 big honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

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

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

"The people who come and see are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

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

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

"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender 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 addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English caps.

"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a