🔗 Share this article

How do you enhance a stellar veteran squad who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?

Bring in a group of ex- professionals who have played at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you target further trophies.

One Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.

The lineup this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.

This elite roster also contains over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

The squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League players have won 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Figures and International Stars

Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My friend Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and see are happy and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

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

Unreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

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

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.

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

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a