🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a excellent experienced side that have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from 32 games?

Recruit a collection of ex- pro players that have played at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you pursue additional trophies.

One Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine former Premier League players in their current squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Tier.

The lineup this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League matches.

The star-studded team also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 global appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United 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 versus reigning champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees 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.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen major honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The people who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go 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 attacking.

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I think I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

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

"We really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

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

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

We Will Still Take the Title'

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

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a