🔗 Share this article

What do you boost a excellent experienced team that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph with 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Bring in a group of former pro players that have competed at the top tier of club football and global football as you target further honors.

One Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their active squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

The team Vets Over 35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Division.

The lineup this season includes nine former Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight games.

The star-studded roster also contains 222 Premier League scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game against defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Well-Known Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented the striker.

"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The people who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his first game at defender.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

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.

He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 Premier League matches.

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

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

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

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

"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

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

We Will Still Win the Title'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a