🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a outstanding experienced team who have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph with 30 victories from 32 games?

Sign a collection of former pro players that have performed at the top tier of club and international football as you pursue further trophies.

A Greater Manchester team has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Tier.

Their lineup this campaign features nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight games.

The star-studded team also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international caps.

The squad feature one forward, who scored 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home game versus defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"The fans who come and see are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at full-back.

"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Experience

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.

"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.

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

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

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a