🔗 Share this article

What can you boost a stellar experienced squad that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Recruit a raft of ex- pro players that have competed at the top level of club football and global soccer as you pursue additional trophies.

A Manchester club has an amateur vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their current squad.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances

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

The squad list this campaign features nine former top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.

This star-studded roster also includes 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.

The squad include one forward, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match versus defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

The team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have won fifteen big trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123m.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

"After that he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise 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 do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those people who come and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.

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

"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

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

Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.

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

"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.

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

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

"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

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

We Will Still Take the League'

The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.

"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a