🔗 Share this article

What do you improve a outstanding veteran team that have secured consecutive titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Recruit a collection of ex- professionals that have performed at the top level of club football and international football as you pursue more trophies.

A Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their current squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

The team Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.

The roster this season features 9 former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 top-flight games.

The elite team also boasts 222 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

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

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

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

"When you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The fans who come and see are pleased and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.

"I think I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

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

"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

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

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a