🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a excellent experienced side that have won consecutive titles, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?

Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have played at the top tier of club football and international football as you target additional honors.

One Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their active roster.

222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.

The roster this campaign includes nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League appearances.

This star-studded squad also includes 222 top division goals and 325 international appearances.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this season also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen major honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

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

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

"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make a day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.

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

"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

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

Unreal Scenario

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - 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 more than 200 top-flight games.

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

"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"We held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a