🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a excellent experienced squad that have won back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with 30 victories from thirty-two games?

Recruit a collection of former professionals that have competed at the top tier of club and international soccer as you pursue further silverware.

A Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

The lineup this season includes nine former top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.

This star-studded squad also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.

They feature one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The squad for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

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

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"The fans who come and watch are happy and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.

"It's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go 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.

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

Unreal Experience

In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

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

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.

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

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

"Our side competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

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

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.

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

We Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a