🔗 Share this article

How do you boost a excellent veteran squad that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Bring in a collection of former pro players that have competed at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you aim for more trophies.

A Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their current squad.

222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Division.

The lineup this season includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.

This elite roster also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global appearances.

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

He made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.

The squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Household Names and Global Stars

Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this season through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, 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 ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

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

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England caps.

"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.

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

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil up and had a