🔗 Share this article

What can you enhance a excellent experienced side who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a collection of ex- professionals who have performed at the elite level of club football and international football as you aim for more honors.

One Manchester club boasts an amateur vets team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current roster.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

The roster this campaign includes nine former top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite matches.

The star-studded squad also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.

The squad feature one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees 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.

In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen big trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Famous Names and International Players

Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

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

Unreal Experience

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

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

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

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

"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a