🔗 Share this article

What do you improve a stellar veteran team that have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 games?

Bring in a collection of ex- pro players that have performed at the top level of club and global football as you target more honors.

One Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.

The squad list this campaign features nine ex- top-flight players, with a combined 1,801 Premier League games.

This high-profile roster also boasts 222 top division goals and 325 international appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their last home game versus reigning champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League footballers have won 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.

Household Figures and International Stars

Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?

"The people who come and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

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

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

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

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

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

"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"We held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a