Second option is better if you want to implement some kind of polymorphism or to completely change function's logic. Something like this.
namespace Nkamm;
// like a PHP6
function strstr($needle, $haystack)
{
return \strstr($haystack, $needle);
}
var_dump(strstr('t', 'Long test'));
Result:
string(4) "test"
But I would not like to do such "overloads" because that will cause the mess (until they are strictly documented in project). Hence there is no sense to overwrite existing functions.
Summing up: keep your functions in your namespace, use global functions without any backslashes.