🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a outstanding experienced squad who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a raft of ex- professionals that have played at the elite tier of club football and global football as you target additional silverware.

One Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their active roster.

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

The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

The squad list this season includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League games.

This high-profile roster also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their last home game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The squad for this season also features former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 big honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.

Famous Figures and Global Stars

Ireland began turning out for the side during pre-season this season through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

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

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at defender.

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

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

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

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

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

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

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 English caps.

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

"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

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

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a