🔗 Share this article

How do you enhance a outstanding experienced team that have secured back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 games?

Sign a raft of ex- pro players that have played at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you target additional honors.

A Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their present squad.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances

The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Tier.

Their lineup this campaign features nine former top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League games.

The star-studded squad also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Ireland began playing for the side in preseason this summer through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"Those fans who come and see are happy and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy 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 running.

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

'Surreal Scenario

Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

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

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games.

"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.

"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 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"They were all dead sound, 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 Take the League'

The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a