🔗 Share this article

How can you boost a excellent veteran side that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Bring in a raft of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you aim for more honors.

One Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their current squad.

222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.

The lineup this season features nine former top-flight players, with a total 1,801 elite matches.

This star-studded roster also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.

The squad feature one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for the team in their last home match against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123m.

Household Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"A mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

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

"It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

The team are top of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

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

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

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

"Our group literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

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

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We went one-nil up and had a