🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a stellar experienced side that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?

Bring in a raft of former professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you pursue further honors.

A Manchester side has an non-professional vets team with nine former top-flight footballers in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.

The squad list this campaign includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite matches.

The elite roster also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

They feature one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Household Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

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

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

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

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

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

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

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

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

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

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a