🔗 Share this article

How can you enhance a outstanding veteran side who have won back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 matches?

Bring in a group of former pro players who have performed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you target more trophies.

A Greater Manchester club has an non-professional vets team with nine former top-flight players in their present lineup.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances

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

The squad list this campaign includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight matches.

The elite team also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The team for this campaign also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Names and Global Stars

Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"That's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

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

"Our group really have not 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 game - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a