🔗 Share this article

What can you enhance a outstanding veteran side who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you target more silverware.

A Manchester side fields an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their active roster.

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

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.

The roster this season features nine former Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 elite matches.

The elite roster also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.

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

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

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

In total, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Famous Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

"A mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The fans who come and see are pleased and to make a day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."

Dreamlike' Experience

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match up front.

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

One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

"I think I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England caps.

"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

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

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Division title last season, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a