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How can you improve a stellar veteran team who have secured back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of former pro players who have played at the elite level of club and global football as you pursue more silverware.

One Greater Manchester side has an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their present squad.

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

The team Vets Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.

Their roster this campaign features nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The elite roster also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps.

They feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

The team for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- Premier League players have won fifteen major trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his debut at full-back.

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

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Feeling

In addition to the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 top-flight games.

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.

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

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

"We held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a