🔗 Share this article

How do you enhance a excellent experienced team that have secured consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 victories from 32 games?

Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have played at the top tier of club football and global football as you target more trophies.

A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active roster.

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

The team Veterans Over-35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.

Their lineup this season includes nine former Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.

This star-studded team also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his first appearance for the team in their last home match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123m.

Famous Figures and International Players

Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this summer through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make a day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."

Such is the squad depth at the club, he made his debut at full-back.

"That's a little different but then, I love 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.

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

Unreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from three and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England appearances.

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

"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 match - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 up and had a