🔗 Share this article

What do you enhance a outstanding veteran side that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of former professionals who have competed at the highest level of club and international soccer as you pursue additional honors.

One Greater Manchester side has an amateur vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their present lineup.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Tier.

Their lineup this campaign includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League appearances.

This star-studded roster also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The team for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Players

Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this season through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

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

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

"The fans who come and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.

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

Dreamlike' Feeling

Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

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

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

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.

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

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

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

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

"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

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

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a