🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a outstanding experienced team who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a group of former professionals that have played at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you aim for more honors.

A Manchester team fields an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight players in their present lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

The squad list this season includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League matches.

The star-studded team also includes over 220 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

They include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

The squad for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he had his debut at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

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

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Premier Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 up and had a