🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a stellar veteran team that have won back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of ex- professionals who have played at the highest level of club football and global soccer as you target further silverware.

One Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their active lineup.

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

The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.

Their lineup this season boasts nine former Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.

The high-profile roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their last home-field match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 big trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.

Household Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at defender.

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

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

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

Unreal Feeling

Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.

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

"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

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

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

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

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

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

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a