🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a stellar experienced side who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from 32 games?

Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have competed at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you target additional honors.

A Greater Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.

Their roster this season features nine former top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 elite appearances.

The star-studded roster also contains 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps.

They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

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

Collectively, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to make a day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

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

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

"We held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.

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

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

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a