🔗 Share this article

What can you boost a stellar experienced side that have secured back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?

Sign a raft of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club football and global football as you target further trophies.

One Manchester team fields an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps

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

The squad list this season includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite matches.

This star-studded roster also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen big trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

"That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

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

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a