🔗 Share this article

How can you enhance a stellar veteran side who have won back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with 30 wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a group of ex- professionals who have played at the top level of club football and international football as you target more silverware.

One Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.

The roster this campaign boasts nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.

This high-profile roster also boasts over 220 top division scores and 325 international caps.

They include one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

The team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"Those fans who turn up and see are happy and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Unreal Experience

Along with Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

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

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

"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a