🔗 Share this article

How can you enhance a stellar experienced squad who have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of former pro players who have competed at the top level of club football and international football as you pursue further trophies.

One Manchester side fields an non-professional vets team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their present lineup.

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

The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Tier.

Their lineup this campaign boasts nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League games.

This elite team also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.

Famous Names and International Players

Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this summer through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!

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

"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over two hundred Premier League games.

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

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.

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

"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a