🔗 Share this article

What can you improve a outstanding veteran team who have won back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 games?

Bring in a collection of ex- pro players that have competed at the top tier of club and international football as you pursue further trophies.

A Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their active roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Appearances

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

Their lineup this season includes nine former Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight matches.

This elite squad also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against reigning champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.

Household Names and International Players

Ireland began playing for the team during pre-season this season through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.

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

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

"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

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

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

"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored 1-0 up and had a