🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a stellar veteran squad that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of former professionals that have played at the top tier of club football and global football as you pursue additional silverware.

A Manchester club fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their present squad.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps

The team Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.

Their squad list this campaign boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League matches.

The high-profile roster also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

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

In total, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Names and International Stars

Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this season through close friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

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

"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"Those people who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he had his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.

"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a