🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a excellent veteran team who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?

Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have played at the highest level of club football and international soccer as you target further silverware.

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

222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.

The roster this campaign boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.

The star-studded team also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their last home-field game against defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

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

Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Household Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The people who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

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

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Experience

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 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 Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight games.

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

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

"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.

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

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a