🔗 Share this article

How can you improve a excellent veteran team that have secured consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?

Bring in a collection of former professionals that have played at the top tier of club football and international soccer as you pursue more silverware.

A Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their current squad.

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

The team Vets Over 35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.

Their roster this campaign boasts nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League appearances.

This star-studded squad also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have won fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The fans who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, he had his first game at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Unreal Experience

Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.

"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.

"Our side competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a